CATOPTRICS is that part of optics which explains the properties of reflected light, and particularly that which is reflected from mirrors. See OPTICS. CATOPTROMANCY (κατοπτρον a mirror, and μαγεία divination), a species of divination among the ancients by means of a mirror. Pausanias says, that among the Achæians if a person were sick he let down a mirror by a thread into a fountain before the temple of Ceres, and looking in the glass, if he saw a distorted ghastly face he regarded it as an ill omen; but if the face appeared fresh and healthy it was a token of recovery.