Mirror, silver and copper alloy
New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, 1479-1390 B.C.
Reportedly from Aswan
Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, Brooklyn Museum #37635e
Photo © Joan Lansberry, May 2008-2016

(From the info card)
"The hairstyle of the nude female figure on the handle of this mirror - thick braids surrounding the face - was popular in the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty, allowing art historians to date the work."

I noted the mirror's round shape and its similarity to the full moon. Later, I discovered this similarity is not accidental. Lucie Lamy in _Egyptian Mysteries_ explains, "at the moment of opposition (full moon), [the moon] is the mirror of the sun." The moon shaped mirrors sometimes had an eye in them:

Moon or sun? "The disc of the mirror is a visual metaphor for the sun, shown in the New Kingdom as a horizonatally elongated ovaloid - the rising sun rather than the circular disc of noon."
(From _New Kingdom Remains from Cemeteries R, V, S, and W at Qustul and Cemetery K at Adindan_, by Bruce Beyer Williams, pages 97-98)

Whether the reflective moon or the emitting sun, the mirrors are definitely symbolic of a luminous heavenly body.


Queen Kawit, a wife of Mentuhotep II, is attended to on her sarcophagus, and has her mirror to inspect the hairdresser's work
The male attendant pouring the Queen a drink says, "For your ka, O mistress."
The KA is an aspect of the soul meaning vital life force.


OIM has two mirrors

The Met museum has one