SphynX_PHC
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ECHO AND NARCISSUS
GREEK MYTHOLOGY
The Story of Echo and Narcissus is one of the most enduring tales from Greek mythology, and the tale of self-love and unrequited love is one which has been told and adapted over many hundreds of years.
Echo in Greek Mythology
Echo was an Oreiad nymph from Mount Cithaeron in Boeotia. The parents of the mountain nymph are never made clear, but she was educated in music by the Younger Muses.
Beautiful in her own right, Echo was chased by both Apollo and Pan, but would shun their advances, and although Zeus did not chase after Echo, he made use of the mountain nymph. For whilst Zeus would have his way with other nymphs, Echo would talk for hours with Hera, distracting the goddess from Zeus’ indiscretions.
Hera would eventually recognise the role Echo was playing in enabling her husband’s affairs, and so Hera cursed Echo so that she no longer had a voice of her own, and the nymph was only able to repeat the words of others.
Narcissus in Greek Mythology
Narcissus was a handsome youth from the city of Thespiae in Boeotia, and was generally considered to be the son of the Potamoi Cephissus and the Oceanid Liriope, although occasionally Narcissus was named as the son of Endymion and Selene.
When still a child, the blind seer Tiresias made a prophecy that Narcissus would lead a long life only as long as he did not “know himself”, although the meaning this is not altogether clear. It might be translated to mean that Narcissus was not to look upon himself, which fits in with the downfall of Narcissus, but equally might be taken to mean that Narcissus had to remain humble.
Narcissus would grow up to be amongst the most beautiful of all mortals, with a beauty on par with that of Endymion, Adonis or Hyacinthus.
Narcissus would become a deer hunter, but his beauty brought forth many admirers both male and female, and mortal and immortal.
The Story of Echo and Narcissus:
When Liriope asked Tiresias, the powerful oracle, if her newborn baby would live a long and happy life, she received the following answer:
“If he but fail to recognize himself, a long life he may have, beneath the sun.”
“So frivolous the prophet’s words appeared,” comments Ovid, but they weren’t. Narcissus’ myth is, as you probably expect, a story about narcissism at its most extreme. However, Narcissus is not the only protagonist of the story. Echo plays an important part too. Echo and Narcissus’ story is a tale about the power of love, a kind of love so powerful that it can turn into an obsession. This obsessive love is the essence of Echo and Narcissus’ myth.
When Liriope saw her son, she could tell that he was beautiful beyond normal. This had become evident to everyone by the time Narcissus had grown up. Men and women attempted to attract his attention and love, but no one really seemed to interest him.
One of the women that fell in love with Narcissus was the nymph Echo (which derives from the Greek word for ‘sound’). Echo was once a woman who enjoyed talking and was known for interrupting others in conversation. However, she did the mistake of helping Zeus, the King of the Greek Olympian gods, in hiding his love affairs from his wife, Hera. Whenever Hera was close to catching Zeus with someone else, Echo disoriented the goddess with long stories giving Zeus time to leave. As soon as Hera realized what Echo was doing, she cursed her to never be able to speak her mind out loud again. Instead, Echo would only be able to repeat the last words spoken by someone else.
Echo And Narcissus Meet:
One day, Echo saw Narcissus in the woods and, enchanted by his looks, began spying on him. Echo followed the boy and became more and more attracted to him, but there was one problem. Echo was unable to speak to Narcissus. The only way to let him know of her feelings was to wait for him to say something.
At some point, Narcissus realized that he was being followed.
“Who is here,” he said.
“Here,” repeated Echo, still hidden.
Narcissus, unable to see who called him, invited the voice to come close to him. Echo lost no second and jumped out. She opened her arms and went to embrace Narcissus. However, he was not as enthusiastic:
“Take off your hands! you shall not fold your arms around me. Better death than such a one should ever caress me!”
“Caress me”, Echo replied reluctantly in shock and disappeared into the woods again.
Echo’s End:
Echo ran into the forest with tears in her eyes. The rejection was too much, too cruel to handle. The love that she had felt for Narcissus was so intense and so obsessive that Echo could not accept the way he had treated her and decided to live alone in the wilderness. However, the thought of her rejection kept coming back. In the end, her feelings were so intense that her body withered away, and the only thing left behind were her bones and voice. Echo’s voice kept living in the woods, and the hills are the place where she can still be heard.
Nevertheless, Echo’s tragic end did not go unnoticed. Since she was very popular with the other Nymphs and creatures of the forest, many were angered with Narcissus, who caused her so much unnecessary suffering.
Nemesis, the goddess of Revenge, heard the voices calling for revenge from the forest and decided to help.
Narcissus Meets Himself:
Nemesis attracted Narcissus to a spring with crystal clear and calm waters. Narcissus, tired of hunting, decided to take a break and drink some water. As he drank from the spring, he began noticing the calm waters. In the natural mirror, he saw his face clearer than ever before. The more water he drank, the more he stared at his own image. Surprise turned into marvel, marvel into love, and love into an obsession. Narcissus was unable to move. His image had completely neutralized him as he was burning with desire for the person he saw in the water of the spring.
“All that is lovely in himself he loves, and in his witless way he wants himself: —he who approves is equally approved; he seeks, is sought, he burns and he is burnt. And how he kisses the deceitful fount; and how he thrusts his arms to catch the neck that’s pictured in the middle of the stream! Yet never may he wreathe his arms around that image of himself.”
--Ovid, Metamorphoses
In vain, he tried to embrace the idol only to realize that the reflection in the calm water was none other than himself. If he left, he would lose sight of his only love, and so he begins to panic at the realization that love may be out of his reach for good.
Obsession Takes Over:
“Nor food nor rest can draw him thence—outstretched upon the overshadowed green, his eyes fixed on the mirrored image never may know their longings satisfied, and by their sight he is himself undone.”
Ovid, Metamorphoses
Narcissus began realizing that he was beyond his reach and slowly arrived at the painful understanding of his tragic fate. Still, he was unable to control his feelings and tame his desire:
“Oh, I am tortured by a strange desire unknown to me before, for I would fain put off this mortal form; which only means I wish the object of my love away. Grief saps my strength, the sands of life are run, and in my early youth am I cut off; but death is not my bane—it ends my woe.—I would not death for this that is my love, as two united in a single soul would die as one.”
--Ovid, Metamorphoses
The tiniest ripple in the water caused Narcissus to panic as the water mirror was disturbed, and he thought that his image would leave him.
After finally accepting the futility of his attempts, Narcissus lost the will to live and reluctantly said, “Farewell.” Echo, who had been watching, returned his words like a whisper: “Farewell.”
Narcissus laid down on the grass, and life began abandoning his body as his obsessive love turned into existential despair. The next day in the place where Narcissus had laid down, a flower with white petals and yellow core stood. This is known until today as the Narcissus flower.
Now in the Underworld, Narcissus still looks at his reflection in the Stygian waters (one of the rivers of Hades)
Narcissus and Ameinias
Echo was just one of a number of spurned lovers, for a tale is also told about the rejection of Ameinias, a fragile youth who had also fallen in love with Narcissus but was also spurned. Ameinias would take the rejection as badly as it could be taken, and the youth would commit suicide in the doorway of Narcissus’ home, killing himself with a sword that had been given to him by Narcissus. Another popular ancient Greek belief was that deathbed curses were particularly lethal and virtually impossible to break. Narcissus’ doom was sealed.
A temple dedicated to love was erected at the site of his death. Narcissus is invoked by those who have previously rejected a lover but would now like a second (or third or fourth) chance.
Some say it was Ameinias who called upon the vengeance of the gods upon Narcissus, whilst others say it was one of the multitude of rejected nymphs who prayed to the gods.
Alternative Versions Of The Myth:
According to Parthenius of Nicaea, Narcissus did not transform into a flower after losing the will to live. Instead, Parthenius presents a version in which the myth ends with Narcissus’ bloody suicide.
Pausanias also presents an alternative version in which Narcissus had a twin sister. They were looking exactly the same, wore the same clothes, and hunted together. Narcissus was madly in love with his sister, and after she died, he visited the spring to look at his reflection and cheat himself into thinking that it was his sister.
According to Longus, a Greek novelist of the 2nd century CE, Echo lived among the nymphs who taught her to sing. As she grew, her voice became more and more beautiful until she could sing better than even the gods. The great god Pan could not accept a mere nymph singing better than him, so he punished her. Pan drove animals and humans around Echo mad. In their frenzy, they attacked and devoured the nymph. Echo’s voice was then scattered across the world carried by the animals and humans that had consumed her. In the end, Gaia (Earth goddess) hid Echo’s voice within herself.
Echo’s cruel punishment for her divine artistic skills is reminiscent of Arachne’s myth, who was also punished by Athena for surpassing the goddess in the art of weaving.
Echo and Narcissus’ Myth Reception:
Echo’s and Narcissus’ myth has been especially popular in art throughout the centuries. It is difficult to keep track of all the artworks that have been inspired by the story. From Medieval retellings like the 12th century, Lay of Narcissus to Herman Hesse’s Narcissus and Goldmund (1930), the story has continued to fascinate and inspire.
An important part in the reception of the myth also played psychoanalysis and, more specifically, Sigmund Freud’s 1914 essay On Narcissism. There, Freud described the condition of excessive selfishness and standardized the name narcissism, derived from Narcissus, to describe a stage between autoerotism and object-love.
Echo and Narcissus chose death or, rather, nothingness after being seriously heart-broken. However, while Echo lost the will to live after being turned down by someone else, Narcissus chose to abandon life after realizing that he was unable to love anyone else other than himself. If we think about it carefully, Narcissus’ myth is not about a boy who loved his reflection in the water. It is about a boy’s inadequacy to love others outside than himself. Above all, the transformation stories of both Echo and Narcissus can be read as a warning that love and obsession often lie closer than we think.
In the age of social media, the term narcissism keeps coming up in our feeds more and more frequently. Narcissus’ myth can remind us that obsessive self-love is not something new and certainly not healthy.
GREEK MYTHOLOGY
The Story of Echo and Narcissus is one of the most enduring tales from Greek mythology, and the tale of self-love and unrequited love is one which has been told and adapted over many hundreds of years.
Echo in Greek Mythology
Echo was an Oreiad nymph from Mount Cithaeron in Boeotia. The parents of the mountain nymph are never made clear, but she was educated in music by the Younger Muses.
Beautiful in her own right, Echo was chased by both Apollo and Pan, but would shun their advances, and although Zeus did not chase after Echo, he made use of the mountain nymph. For whilst Zeus would have his way with other nymphs, Echo would talk for hours with Hera, distracting the goddess from Zeus’ indiscretions.
Hera would eventually recognise the role Echo was playing in enabling her husband’s affairs, and so Hera cursed Echo so that she no longer had a voice of her own, and the nymph was only able to repeat the words of others.
Narcissus in Greek Mythology
Narcissus was a handsome youth from the city of Thespiae in Boeotia, and was generally considered to be the son of the Potamoi Cephissus and the Oceanid Liriope, although occasionally Narcissus was named as the son of Endymion and Selene.
When still a child, the blind seer Tiresias made a prophecy that Narcissus would lead a long life only as long as he did not “know himself”, although the meaning this is not altogether clear. It might be translated to mean that Narcissus was not to look upon himself, which fits in with the downfall of Narcissus, but equally might be taken to mean that Narcissus had to remain humble.
Narcissus would grow up to be amongst the most beautiful of all mortals, with a beauty on par with that of Endymion, Adonis or Hyacinthus.
Narcissus would become a deer hunter, but his beauty brought forth many admirers both male and female, and mortal and immortal.
The Story of Echo and Narcissus:
When Liriope asked Tiresias, the powerful oracle, if her newborn baby would live a long and happy life, she received the following answer:
“If he but fail to recognize himself, a long life he may have, beneath the sun.”
“So frivolous the prophet’s words appeared,” comments Ovid, but they weren’t. Narcissus’ myth is, as you probably expect, a story about narcissism at its most extreme. However, Narcissus is not the only protagonist of the story. Echo plays an important part too. Echo and Narcissus’ story is a tale about the power of love, a kind of love so powerful that it can turn into an obsession. This obsessive love is the essence of Echo and Narcissus’ myth.
When Liriope saw her son, she could tell that he was beautiful beyond normal. This had become evident to everyone by the time Narcissus had grown up. Men and women attempted to attract his attention and love, but no one really seemed to interest him.
One of the women that fell in love with Narcissus was the nymph Echo (which derives from the Greek word for ‘sound’). Echo was once a woman who enjoyed talking and was known for interrupting others in conversation. However, she did the mistake of helping Zeus, the King of the Greek Olympian gods, in hiding his love affairs from his wife, Hera. Whenever Hera was close to catching Zeus with someone else, Echo disoriented the goddess with long stories giving Zeus time to leave. As soon as Hera realized what Echo was doing, she cursed her to never be able to speak her mind out loud again. Instead, Echo would only be able to repeat the last words spoken by someone else.
Echo And Narcissus Meet:
One day, Echo saw Narcissus in the woods and, enchanted by his looks, began spying on him. Echo followed the boy and became more and more attracted to him, but there was one problem. Echo was unable to speak to Narcissus. The only way to let him know of her feelings was to wait for him to say something.
At some point, Narcissus realized that he was being followed.
“Who is here,” he said.
“Here,” repeated Echo, still hidden.
Narcissus, unable to see who called him, invited the voice to come close to him. Echo lost no second and jumped out. She opened her arms and went to embrace Narcissus. However, he was not as enthusiastic:
“Take off your hands! you shall not fold your arms around me. Better death than such a one should ever caress me!”
“Caress me”, Echo replied reluctantly in shock and disappeared into the woods again.
Echo’s End:
Echo ran into the forest with tears in her eyes. The rejection was too much, too cruel to handle. The love that she had felt for Narcissus was so intense and so obsessive that Echo could not accept the way he had treated her and decided to live alone in the wilderness. However, the thought of her rejection kept coming back. In the end, her feelings were so intense that her body withered away, and the only thing left behind were her bones and voice. Echo’s voice kept living in the woods, and the hills are the place where she can still be heard.
Nevertheless, Echo’s tragic end did not go unnoticed. Since she was very popular with the other Nymphs and creatures of the forest, many were angered with Narcissus, who caused her so much unnecessary suffering.
Nemesis, the goddess of Revenge, heard the voices calling for revenge from the forest and decided to help.
Narcissus Meets Himself:
Nemesis attracted Narcissus to a spring with crystal clear and calm waters. Narcissus, tired of hunting, decided to take a break and drink some water. As he drank from the spring, he began noticing the calm waters. In the natural mirror, he saw his face clearer than ever before. The more water he drank, the more he stared at his own image. Surprise turned into marvel, marvel into love, and love into an obsession. Narcissus was unable to move. His image had completely neutralized him as he was burning with desire for the person he saw in the water of the spring.
“All that is lovely in himself he loves, and in his witless way he wants himself: —he who approves is equally approved; he seeks, is sought, he burns and he is burnt. And how he kisses the deceitful fount; and how he thrusts his arms to catch the neck that’s pictured in the middle of the stream! Yet never may he wreathe his arms around that image of himself.”
--Ovid, Metamorphoses
In vain, he tried to embrace the idol only to realize that the reflection in the calm water was none other than himself. If he left, he would lose sight of his only love, and so he begins to panic at the realization that love may be out of his reach for good.
Obsession Takes Over:
“Nor food nor rest can draw him thence—outstretched upon the overshadowed green, his eyes fixed on the mirrored image never may know their longings satisfied, and by their sight he is himself undone.”
Ovid, Metamorphoses
Narcissus began realizing that he was beyond his reach and slowly arrived at the painful understanding of his tragic fate. Still, he was unable to control his feelings and tame his desire:
“Oh, I am tortured by a strange desire unknown to me before, for I would fain put off this mortal form; which only means I wish the object of my love away. Grief saps my strength, the sands of life are run, and in my early youth am I cut off; but death is not my bane—it ends my woe.—I would not death for this that is my love, as two united in a single soul would die as one.”
--Ovid, Metamorphoses
The tiniest ripple in the water caused Narcissus to panic as the water mirror was disturbed, and he thought that his image would leave him.
After finally accepting the futility of his attempts, Narcissus lost the will to live and reluctantly said, “Farewell.” Echo, who had been watching, returned his words like a whisper: “Farewell.”
Narcissus laid down on the grass, and life began abandoning his body as his obsessive love turned into existential despair. The next day in the place where Narcissus had laid down, a flower with white petals and yellow core stood. This is known until today as the Narcissus flower.
Now in the Underworld, Narcissus still looks at his reflection in the Stygian waters (one of the rivers of Hades)
Narcissus and Ameinias
Echo was just one of a number of spurned lovers, for a tale is also told about the rejection of Ameinias, a fragile youth who had also fallen in love with Narcissus but was also spurned. Ameinias would take the rejection as badly as it could be taken, and the youth would commit suicide in the doorway of Narcissus’ home, killing himself with a sword that had been given to him by Narcissus. Another popular ancient Greek belief was that deathbed curses were particularly lethal and virtually impossible to break. Narcissus’ doom was sealed.
A temple dedicated to love was erected at the site of his death. Narcissus is invoked by those who have previously rejected a lover but would now like a second (or third or fourth) chance.
Some say it was Ameinias who called upon the vengeance of the gods upon Narcissus, whilst others say it was one of the multitude of rejected nymphs who prayed to the gods.
Alternative Versions Of The Myth:
According to Parthenius of Nicaea, Narcissus did not transform into a flower after losing the will to live. Instead, Parthenius presents a version in which the myth ends with Narcissus’ bloody suicide.
Pausanias also presents an alternative version in which Narcissus had a twin sister. They were looking exactly the same, wore the same clothes, and hunted together. Narcissus was madly in love with his sister, and after she died, he visited the spring to look at his reflection and cheat himself into thinking that it was his sister.
According to Longus, a Greek novelist of the 2nd century CE, Echo lived among the nymphs who taught her to sing. As she grew, her voice became more and more beautiful until she could sing better than even the gods. The great god Pan could not accept a mere nymph singing better than him, so he punished her. Pan drove animals and humans around Echo mad. In their frenzy, they attacked and devoured the nymph. Echo’s voice was then scattered across the world carried by the animals and humans that had consumed her. In the end, Gaia (Earth goddess) hid Echo’s voice within herself.
Echo’s cruel punishment for her divine artistic skills is reminiscent of Arachne’s myth, who was also punished by Athena for surpassing the goddess in the art of weaving.
Echo and Narcissus’ Myth Reception:
Echo’s and Narcissus’ myth has been especially popular in art throughout the centuries. It is difficult to keep track of all the artworks that have been inspired by the story. From Medieval retellings like the 12th century, Lay of Narcissus to Herman Hesse’s Narcissus and Goldmund (1930), the story has continued to fascinate and inspire.
An important part in the reception of the myth also played psychoanalysis and, more specifically, Sigmund Freud’s 1914 essay On Narcissism. There, Freud described the condition of excessive selfishness and standardized the name narcissism, derived from Narcissus, to describe a stage between autoerotism and object-love.
Echo and Narcissus chose death or, rather, nothingness after being seriously heart-broken. However, while Echo lost the will to live after being turned down by someone else, Narcissus chose to abandon life after realizing that he was unable to love anyone else other than himself. If we think about it carefully, Narcissus’ myth is not about a boy who loved his reflection in the water. It is about a boy’s inadequacy to love others outside than himself. Above all, the transformation stories of both Echo and Narcissus can be read as a warning that love and obsession often lie closer than we think.
In the age of social media, the term narcissism keeps coming up in our feeds more and more frequently. Narcissus’ myth can remind us that obsessive self-love is not something new and certainly not healthy.