Mythology and folklore are filled with stories about the supernatural properties of the reflection, providing some clues to the origin of this superstition. The most famous example is the ancient Greek myth of Narcissus, who fell in love with his own image reflected in a lake, but died of starvation after spending the rest of his life trying to caress it. “This story shows that beauty, like reflection, is ephemeral and transitory. The breaking of the image symbolically represents death itself”, says the Hellenist Antônio Medina Rodrigues, from USP. Also in ancient Greece a method of divination called catoptromancy gave another important boost to superstition. Probable forerunner of the crystal ball, the method consisted of using a flat glass or an earthenware bowl with water to reflect the image of the person who wanted to know their luck. If during the session the container fell and broke, it meant that the person would die or the coming days would be catastrophic.
The Romans adopted this Greek divination custom, adding that bad luck would last for seven years, the time they believed to take to start a new human life cycle. The panic at the possibility that the reflection would be broken existed because the reflected image was seen as the person’s own soul. This type of interpretation explains the appearance of other later legends, such as the one that vampires do not appear in the mirror – precisely because they do not have a soul. When the first glass mirrors appeared, in the 16th century, in the city of Venice, Italy, superstition also had a great economic utility. As mirrors were expensive, the servants who cleaned them were warned that breaking them would bring bad luck. This superstition became so popular around the world that even an antidote for it was invented. Whoever is unlucky enough to break a mirror needs to grind the shards to eliminate any reflection, or bury them in the ground. Simple, isn’t it?