According to the myth, handsome Narcissus once gazed at himself in a pool of water and fell in love with his own reflection, a self-obsession that would ultimately doom him.
While we can be grateful to this cautionary tale for inspiring the term narcissism, it seems a tad unfair for us to fault one Greek youth for being fascinated by his own appearance. After all, humans have been obsessed with their reflections for millennia, and that obsession would trigger the development of one of the greatest inventions in the history of our species: the humble mirror.
Like Narcissus, early humans probably first became acquainted with their reflections by seeing them in a pool of water. Although they likely didn’t use this discovery for grooming or self-introspection, at some point they would have understood that they were looking at themselves.
This is no trivial ability: Being able to identify your reflection as you and not some other creature is uncommon in nature — sure, some animals like elephants, dolphins and other primates can pass the so-called mirror test, but it’s a pretty short list. And among humans, recognizing your reflection as your reflection — in short, having a basic sense of self — is a foundational aspect of cognition and an important part of human development.
From a modern perspective, the invention of the mirror must seem like something that was inevitable, almost pre-ordained. But like so many other inventions, developing the modern mirror as we know it was a long, imperfect and sometimes expensive process. Let’s pause now to reflect on the history of the mirror and what its evolution has meant for our evolution.
