How ancient people saw themselves
13 comments
·October 26, 2025orly01
I didn't expect it to be about literally seeing.
brap
About 3/4 into the article, “wait, it’s all about mirrors? ...Oh!”
raldi
I'm surprised more museums don't have modern replicas demonstrating what the ancient artifacts would have looked like when pristine.
sanskarix
British Museum actually does this with their Greek statues - shows how they were painted. The gap between "marble perfection" and "gaudy colors" is wild. Makes you realize how much our idea of classical taste is just patina.
1000units
So the sculptors had much better taste than the painters they allowed? Or are the reproductions not faithful?
twelvechairs
One view is that the western idea of "good taste" was informed by people looking at greek and roman statues and buildings and incorrectly assuming they were always intended to be plain.
ljlolel
sounds like partly they didn't have access to great pigments back then
Joel_Mckay
There are stories of when near perfect mirrors entered trade. Some stories are sweet, and others rather macabre:
https://www.japanpowered.com/folklore-and-urban-legends/mirr...
Technology tends to influence cultures in subtle ways few remember a generation later. =3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Most_Dangerous_Animal_In_T...
01HNNWZ0MV43FF
It's about mirrors, it's about how they literally saw themselves in mirrors
lurk2
Called it.
llamasushi
Am I the only one who thought this was referring to how people felt about the general zeitgeist? Like, how Romans viewed everyone outside Rome as barbarian, etc. Not in the literal sense like, mirrors. Nice HN switcheroo.
tonyhart7
Yeah, I thought it was a more avant-garde question, like Greek philosophical literature.
It turns out the title has a literal meaning."
This is calling out for experimental archaeologists to make the best possible front surface reflections they can from polished copper, bronze, steel, obsidian, glass. The Romans had metallised glass. They knew how to roast glass. They may well have known how to vaporise metal onto glass.
The state of the reflecting surface with 2ky of corrosion does not match even looking at your reflections in water.