The Writing on the Mirror:
Images of Texts on
Etruscan Mirrors

Jacquelyn H. Clements (Johns Hopkins University)

Several Etruscan mirrors of the 4^th century B.C.E. depict images of texts in relationship to prophetic scenes. These texts which appear on the mirrors in the form of tablets and scrolls are often esoteric and difficult, if not impossible, to read, perhaps because of their diminutive size in relationship to the rest of the mirror, but more likely because they are the result of the cryptic language that so often permeates prophecies. Prophets and prophecies were core elements of the Etruscan religion, and the sayings of such prophets as Tages and Cacu were known to have been recorded and then compiled into books for dissemination and understanding.

Six mirrors in particular depict a similar composition, that of a multiple-figure group with a curious head arising from the lower left hand side of the mirror. Of these, four of the mirrors include indications of tablets for writing in the hands of seated figures. As previous scholarship has noted, the head is understood to be a prophetic figure, and the scribes are seen as characters that interpret and record the prophecy spoken by the head. The writing found upon the tablets of the mirrors is of particular interest, as it able to be observed, but no sufficient interpretations of the texts themselves have come to light thus far. I seek to examine these mirrors and several others, including mirrors with depictions of scrolls, in addition to a group of thematically similar gems, in order to draw a powerful correlation between the written word as an instrument of memory and wisdom in relationship to prophetic scenes.

This paper closely examines the texts that appear on the tablets and scrolls depicted on Etruscan mirrors, and the relationship between these texts and the iconography of the mirrors as a whole. Various attempts have been made to give meaning to these indiscernible and miniscule texts without much success. I argue, however, that the texts are deliberately untranslatable, serving as images of enigmatic prophecies that are left to be interpreted. Thus the representations of the written word found upon mirrors hint at the actual physical objects that would have contained sacred and profound texts, including prophecies. These images of texts therefore carry even more weight, for their cryptic nature alludes to the mysteries held within, able to be understood only be a select few.