Mirrors

ANCIENT JEWELLERY EXHIBITED IN ANATOLIAN CIVILIZATIONS MUSEUM

Mirrors

The word Jewellery reminds about many auxiliary materials. When its function of pleasing, being liked and being ornamented is taken into consideration, and when it is thought that the Jewellery boxes, toilet tables and mirrors are made of valuable stones and metals, the importance of them will be understood. For this reason, although they form a large group and should be considered as a whole in another scope, we have found it appropriate to start the catalogue with a sample from the auxiliary materials for the Jewellery.

The metal of a round mirror having a thickness of 0.2 cm including lead and consisting of highly tinned bronze is strong. Its front face having a silver brightness and used as a mirror is clean and the part where a broken handle of the mirror connects with the body has been protected in a form of two small projections at the side of a round body. The frame of the mirror is incomplete. The diametre of the gold coated brass of 0.9 mm thickness that is adhered to the back of the mirror is 0.7 cm smaller than the diametre of the main body. In this part of 0.7 cm, the traces of a white and hard material, which we assume was used for adhesion the mirror frame, are seen.

There is an Eros relief represented on the front side, with arms open to the sides on a gold coated brass sheet. Since the sheet is too thin, there have been crushes and breaks. Eros is depicted in the position where the body weight is concentrated on the right leg. The right hip is slightly salient, right foot is fully on the ground, the left leg is slightly bend from the knee and holds a kithara in his hand presented from the front side. The right arm is open towards the side and is slightly bent from the elbow. Eros holds a plectrum in this hand. The cord of the plectrum is tied to the wrist and a pompon at the end is shown in relief on the wrist.

A head is slightly turned towards right and slightly bent down. The hair is separated in the mid and comes in line with an ear in big waves and goes down to a neck in curls. The hair on the right side of the head is shown, the curls on the left side are not seen. A part of hair is curled on the top of the head. On the oval face, his cheek is plump, the lips are thick, a nose is squat, the eyes are big and the pupils are significant. The feathers of the wings on the back are open upwards and towards the sides and their ends emphasize the moment at which the wings start to close.

Eros has a cape on his back that covers almost the entire golden coated sheet. This cape, which leaves his body completely naked, forms a kind of background, while being tied with a flat band in "V" shape a bit below the neck, which spreads on the shoulders. While the cape goes down towards the waist from the shoulders on the back, it opens in waves in the form of large flounces from the waist. A flounce of the cape is seen at the part of the legs close to the ankle. The thinness and nicely draping of the cloth is clear.

As known, Eros is one of the figures that are frequently met in the representation. In general, he is pictured naked and winged. He carries his symbols in his hand. These symbols may be his bow and arrow or his kithara. There are representations of Eros with the symbols of Hermes and Herakles. Besides the representations in which he is alone, there are many representations in which he is with Psyche or Aphrodite. Eros in the Ankara mirror is different from other Eros samples in terms of its showing a different feature from these generalizations. As indicated herein above, Eros, who is generally represented naked, is clothed in some samples. In some of these, he is in a cape. In almost all representations, Eros is shown with open wings, but in Ankara mirror, he is represented with a cape flying and flouncing in the wind besides the open wings, for the first time. This feature reminds a melody of the famous Lesbos poet, Sappho. Maybe, we find the representation of this melody that has been known for a long time, for the first time in the Ankara mirror. From this melody that reached today in the form of a fragment, only the verse:

"Coming from the skies with his light purple khlamis on his shoulders" could be protected. In the verse, a khlamis, for which we can not consider any other colour, is emphasized and furthermore, Eros is indicated to come from the skies. The same phrases exist on the relief. Covering of all the surface and probably having the colour light purple once upon a time, khlamis is specially emphasized on the relief. Furthermore, the flouncing it makes while spreading over the surface reflects the wind effect on the Nike representations here with the most realistic way. This way, Eros on the relief comes down to the earth from the sky with his flying, flouncing cape, just standing on one of his feet.