Mirror with Engraved Scene: Thesan and Memnun (Eos and Memnon) (c. 470–460 BCE): Art, History and Details

Mirror with Engraved Scene: Thesan and Memnun (Eos and Memnon) (c. 470–460 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Two figures occupy the reverse side of this nearly circular bronze mirror, neatly enclosed by a continuous ivy-leaf border. Equipped with wings and winged shoes, the dawn goddess Thesan (Eos) carries the body of her son Memnun (Memnon). Slain by Achilles on the battlefield at Troy, he still wears armor and greaves, though his crested helmet has fallen below. The subject occurs on several other Etruscan mirrors and Greek vases of the same time period, though not nearly as frequently as scenes of Eos in pursuit of lovers (including Tithonos, father of Memnon).

Object facts

• Title: Mirror with Engraved Scene: Thesan and Memnun (Eos and Memnon)
• Date: c. 470–460 BCE
• Culture: Etruscan
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Diameter: 14.4 cm (5 11/16 in.); Overall: 19.8 cm (7 13/16 in.)
• Collection: GR - Etruscan
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1952.259

A detail from the museum

The short tang below the disc of this mirror fit into a larger handle, likely of bone or ivory.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. "An Etruscan Mirror with Eos and Memnon." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 40, no. 2 (1953): 32-35.
• De Puma, Richard Daniel. "A Fourth Century Praenestine Mirror with Telephos and Orestes." Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archaeologischen Instituts Roemische Abteilung 87 (1980): 5-28.
• De Puma, Richard Daniel. "Greek Myths on Three Etruscan Mirrors in Cleveland." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 70, no. 7 (1983): 290-302.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.