Cleveland Museum of Art

Box Mirror with Head of Athena

Date

330–270 BCE

Medium

bronze, partially gilt

Culture

Greece, Hellenistic period

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The ancient Greek box mirror resembles a modern, hinged makeup compact in design. While the actual mirror is the top of the bottom half of the box—a highly polished cast-bronze disk—the cover often bears relief decoration. This example features a helmeted head of Athena, a virgin war goddess not typically associated with implements of beauty. Several other aspects suggest that this Athena may have been repurposed from another object in antiquity: the striking difference in patina between relief and case; the irregular (noncircular) shape; and the method of attachment, with rivets through the relief rather than solder. Athena, the virgin goddess of war and craft, rarely appears on mirrors.

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