A joint program sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America Dayton Society, the Miami University Department of History, and the Richard and Carole Cocks Art Museum at Miami University.

Although we often take them for granted, mirrors in antiquity were powerful tools for the construction of feminine identity. Building on the idea of the mirror as speculum, we will explore how the mirror reflected concepts of beauty, care of the body, economic status, marital status, and social role, throughout the female life-cycle. The ritual functions of mirrors connected women to the divine, and even determined their fate. We will also consider the post-classical “lives” of ancient mirrors, several of which can be found in museums throughout Ohio. This public lecture is in association with HST 210S “Roman Civilization and Roman Spectacle”

Mireille Lee is the Founder and Executive Director of the Foundation for Ethical Stewardship of Cultural Heritage (FESCH), and Project Director for the Mediterranean Antiquities Provenance Research Alliance (MAPRA). A classical archaeologist by
training, she earned her AB from Occidental College, and her MA and PhD from Bryn Mawr. She has published widely on ancient Greek art, gender studies, and object biography. Her first monograph, Body, Dress, and Identity in Ancient Greece, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2015. Her current book project, on ancient Greek mirrors, is under contract with Oxford University Press.