Sotheby (New York), Sale Cat., 12 June 1993, no. 346 (ill.).

1993.01

Etruscan Mirror

Presented by the Friends of the Classics Museum. Ht 21.4cm; diam. disc 10.4cm.

Intact and in fairly good condition but for some minor corrosion of the surface. The obverse of the disc is somewhat convex and was highly polished. Around its edge and marked off by a fine line is a narrow zone of impressed grooves; it runs onto the upper part of the handle where there is a groove-and-dot motif between.

The handle is in the form of an extended horse, highly schematised, its back towards the reflective side of the mirror. The side towards the reverse is undecorated.

The reverse of the disc is decorated in incision with the confronted figures of the Dioskouroi/Tinas Clinias (Castur and Pultuce). Their nearer legs are to the ground, the others raised behind, as if walking, and their nearer arms are bent. They each wear a Phrygian cap, tunic and boots. Between them in the upper field is a four-pointed star.

Probably datable to the third century BC. The style is a simple, local one, and this is a thoroughly characteristic depiction. As the twin sons of Zeus and Leda (and brothers of Helen and Clytemnestra), their parallel movements emphasise their existence as a pair. The boots and short garments are appropriate to them as travellers. The star of course refers to the constellation (the Twins).

Castor and Pollux were popular interveners in human affairs all over the Greek and Roman worlds. See the excellent summary by Parker in S. Hornblower and A. Spawforth (eds), The Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed., Oxford 1996, revised 2003). Also A. Hermary in Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae iii (Zurich-Munich 1986) 567f. s.v. Dioskouroi, and now E. Köhne, Die Dioskuren in der griechischen Kunst von der Archaik bis zum Ende des 5. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. (Hamburg 1998); T. Lorenz, “Die Epiphanie der Dioskuren”, in: H. Froning, T. Hölscher and H. Mielsch (eds), Kotinos. Festschrift für Erika Simon (Mainz 1992) 114-122.

Their popularity in Etruria, where they are most often depicted on mirrors of the fourth and third centuries BC, is reasonably thought to derive from the Greek cities of southern Italy, and in particular Taranto, where their cult surely developed out of that of the mother-city in Laconia. On their presence in Italy, see R. Adam and D. Briquel, “Le miroir prénestin de l'Antiquario comunale de Rome et la légende des jumeaux divins en milieu latin à la fin du IVe siècle av. J.-C.”, Melanges d’Archéologie et d'Histoire - Antiquité 94, 1982, 33-65; M. Albert, Le culte de Castor et Pollux en Italie (Paris 1983). As to Etruria, one remembers the cup by Oltos dedicated to the Dioskouroi at Tarquinia (M. Cristofani, “Dedica ai Dioscuri”, Prospettiva 53-56, 1988-89, 14-16) and then in respect of mirrors, e.g. R.D. De Puma, “The Dioskouroi on Four Etruscan Mirrors in Midwestern Collections”, Studi Etruschi 41, 1973, 159-170; D. Emmanuel-Rebuffat, “Dioscures à l'amphore en Etrurie”, Revue Archéologique 1981, 217-226. De Puma also gives a good coverage of their appearance on mirrors in Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae iii (Zurich-Munich 1986) s.v. Dioskouroi/Tinas Clinias, with further bibliography. There are also some comments on the use and function of such depictions by F.-H. Massa-Pairault, Recherches sur l'art et l'artisanat étrusco-italiques à l'époque hellénistique (BEFAR 257, Rome 1985) 109-114.

N.T. de Grummond (ed.), A Guide to Etruscan Mirrors (Tallahassee 1982) illustrates two broadly-comparable mirrors in Toronto figs 54-55 and 56-57. She comments on the motif of the Dioskouroi at 163-164 and 185-186, pointing out that they are a popular subject on late mirrors and suggesting that they were appropriate as tomb furniture since the twins shared immortality. See also her pp. 154-155 on questions of chronology (with further refs). She would date examples like this to the third century, perhaps extending into the second. There are some brief comments in the same author’s useful volume Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend (Philadelphia 2006), and especially 189-193.

D. Rebuffat-Emmanuel gives careful descriptions to a wide selection in Le miroir étrusque d'après la collection du Cabinet des Médailles (Rome 1973). For comparable representations of the Dioskouroi, see 146-150 no. 1306, pl. 24; 150-153 no. 1307, pl. 25; 163 no. 1311, pl. 29.

Important in the history of the subject is the fundamental catalogue by Eduard Gerhard, Etruskische Spiegel (Berlin 1840-1897) but one should now be aware of the series Corpus Speculorum Etruscorum, still in progress. For those seeking an elegant introduction, Beazley’s reading “The World of the Etruscan Mirror”,Journal of Hellenic Studies 69, 1949, 1-17, remains classic.

Sotheby (New York), Sale Cat., 12 June 1993, no. 346 (ill.).