Mirrors constituted another article of Hellenic luxury. These were sometimes of brass,[470] whence the proverb: As forms by brass, so minds by wine are mirrored.[471] ----- Footnote 470: Xen. Conv. vii. 4. They were sometimes square and washed with silver. Caylus, Rec. d’Antiq. t. vi. p. 398. Cf. Cœl. Rhodig. xv. 12, 13. Plat. Tim. t. vii. 52, seq. 61. Lucian. Amor. § 39. Ter. Adelph. ii. 3. 61. Cicero in Pison. c. 29. Poll. vii. 95. x. 126, 164. Footnote 471: Athen. x. 31. ----- The best, however, until those of glass came into use, were made of silver or of a mixed metal, the exact composition of which is not now known. Another kind was fashioned from a species of carbuncle found near the city of Orchomenos,[472] in Arcadia. Glass mirrors[473] also came early into use, chiefly manufactured, at the outset, by the Phœnicians of Sidon. The hand-mirrors were usually circular,[474] and set in costly frames. To prevent their being speedily tarnished they were, when not in use, carefully enclosed in cases.[475] ----- Footnote 472: Theoph. de Lapid. §. 33. Footnote 473: It is to be observed, that before the application of quicksilver in the construction of these glasses (which I presume is of no great antiquity) the reflection of images by such specula must have been effected by their being besmeared behind, or tinged through with some dark colour, especially black, which would obstruct the refraction of the rays of light. Nixon in Philosoph. Trans, t. iv. p. 602. Cf. Plin. xxxvi. 26. § 67. Footnote 474: Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 742. Footnote 475: Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 741. ----- There were mirrors, too, of polished silver, fashioned so as to magnify immensely the objects they reflected.[476] They invented also large cups containing within many diminutive mirrors, so that when any one looked into them, his eye was met by a multitude of faces all resembling his own.[477] In a temple of Hera in Arcadia, was a mirror fixed in the wall, wherein the spectator could at first scarcely, if at all, discern his own image, while the throne of the goddess and the statues of the other deities ranged around were most brilliantly reflected.[478] Many sorts of mirrors appear to have been made for the purpose of playing off practical jokes. For example, looking in one of these, a handsome woman would find her visage transformed into that of a Gorgon, so as to appear terrible even to herself. Others again were so very flattering, that a half-starved barber, viewing his figure therein, appeared to be gifted with the thewes of a Heracles. Another sort distorted the countenance, or inverted it, or showed merely the half. ----- Footnote 476: Plaut. in Mostell. i. 3. 101. Footnote 477: Plin. xxxiii. 45. Senec. Quæst. Nat. i. 4. Footnote 478: Paus. viii. 37. 7. -----