We can now understand why it was a maxim both in ancient India and ancient Greece not to look at one’s reflection in water, and why the Greeks regarded it as an omen of death if a man dreamed of seeing himself so reflected.[1] They feared that the water-spirits would drag the person’s reflection (soul) under water, leaving him soulless to die. This was probably the origin of the classical story of the beautiful Narcissus, who pined and died in consequence of seeing his reflection in the water. The explanation that he died for love of his own fair image was probably devised later, after the old meaning of the story was forgotten. The same ancient belief lingers, in a faded form, in the English superstition that whoever sees a water-fairy must pine and die.
“Alas, the moon should ever beam
To show what man should never see!—
I saw a maiden on a stream,
And fair was she!
“I staid to watch, a little space,
Her parted lips if she would sing;
The waters closed above her face
With many a ring.
“I know my life will fade away,
I know that I must vainly pine.
For I am made of mortal clay.
But she’s divine!”
Further, we can now explain the widespread custom of covering up mirrors or turning them to the wall after a death has taken place in the house. It is feared that the soul, projected out of the person in the shape of his reflection in the mirror, may be carried off by the ghost of the departed, which is commonly supposed to linger about the house till the burial. The custom
- ↑ Fragmenta Philosoph. Graec. ed. Mullach, i. 510; Artemidorus, Onirocr. ii. 7; Laws of Manu, iv. 38.
