Mirrors and The Manufacture of Religious Aura in the Graeco-Roman World

Mirrors formed part of the religious materiality of ancient Greek religion. The implication of such an observation is that the technology of reflection was thought to aid the interaction between human and divine: how did this work? I start from the premise that the same object—the mirror—used for the same purposes of manufacturing religious aura does not function in the same way within all religious systems. It thus becomes necessary to understand what was unique to the relationship between catoptrics and religion specifically in the Graeco-Roman context. Using a comparative ethno-anthropological approach and introducing the frequently overlooked genre of ancient technical manuals into the discussion, I argue that the perceived ontological gap between real and reflected images was crucial to the mirror’s ability to create religious aura in ancient Greek religion.