Mirror with Figures (Front (main view))

The back of the mirror is decorated with four engraved figures, who are identified by Etruscan inscriptions along the upper border. Two seated youths, who frame the composition on either side, wear Phrygian caps, tall thonged sandals, a drape of fabric across the thighs, and a baldric holding a sword. The youth on the right is identified as "Menle" (Menelaus) and the figure on the left as "Pru..the" (Prometheus). Between them stand a nude frontal figure labeled "Talmithe" (Palamedes). He has billowing curls, and wears tall thonged sandals and a baldric with two spears. Slightly behind him is "Mer...a" ( Minerva) wearing a Corinthian helmet and a long peplos with an overfold. The group stands in front of the pediment of a temple. Around the figural scene is a garland or crown of spikey leaves tied with a circlet at the top, bottom, and both sides. The lower part of the handle is missing.

Handle mirrors (known as “malstria” in Etruscan) belonging to the “Spiky Garland Group” typically have an engraved, four-figure composition of humans and gods on the non-reflective side, a large handle ending in an animal head, and elaborate engraved decoration on the raised border surrounding the disc. Inscriptions often name the individual figures, but are not always correctly assigned. On this mirror, Prometheus, Palamedes, and Menelaus are protagonists in the tragedies of the Greek playwright Euripides. To judge from their widespread appearance on mirrors and cinerary urns, Euripidean plots were familiar to the Etruscans via the artistic intermediary of South Italian vase-painting and possibly through locally-produced performances or adaptations. The Spiky Garland group dates from the early 3rd to the 2nd century B.C.