Narcissus

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Narcissus is a mythological character based on Roman poet Ovid’s book Metamorphoses. In Book III of Metamorphoses, Ovid shares details about Narcissus through the mythological story of Echo and Narcissus. It is an interesting epic that focuses on concepts of narcissism and its effects.

A Summary of Echo and Narcissus

In a nutshell, the story of Echo and Narcissus is about two characters suffering from issues that unfold into an interesting epic of symbolism, imagery, and drama. The story begins with Echo, a beautiful nymph, who has been cursed because her mindless chatter that resulted in Zeus being able to escape from Hera’s wrath. The curse handed down by Hera to Echo was that Echo would never be able to speak with her own free will ever again but would instead be destined to repeat whatever she heard from others.

As the story progresses, Echo sees Narcissus roaming through the woods looking for his friends while he was deer hunting. The moment she sees him, it is love at first sight for her. Too bad she can’t speak to him because of her curse. When she approaches him, she is like a deer caught in headlights. She falls so hopelessly in love with him. Narcissus is ignorant of this fact, and because he wants to catch up with his friends, he simply asks her for directions. What ensues is a very annoying conversation for Narcissus in which he talks and Echo repeats what he says back to him.

Well, as one can imagine, Narcissus becomes frustrated and walks away from her. He’d had enough of Echo’s vain echos of babbling about “love this” and “love that”. At some point, Echo actually reaches out her arms to Narcissus in an attempt to show her love with a hug, but Narcissus refuses to accept her love. For Echo, this is the ultimate rejection and the sting of unrequited love. She is heartbroken … so heartbroken that she flees to a cave. In the cave she cries over lost love and prays to a goddess to take her pain away. The goddess answers Echo’s prayer by making Echo an invisible voice and by swearing vengeance upon Narcissus for breaking Echo’s heart.

Meanwhile, after Narcissus walked away from the crazy conversation he’d had with Echo, he moves on with his life repeating a cycle of breaking hearts just as he’d broken Echo’s. At some point in time, he was hunting when he became tired and thirsty. When he came across a stream to take a drink, he looked into the stream of water and saw his reflection. I’m going to assume that seeing one’s reflection was rare in those times because when Narcissus saw his reflection, he immediately fell in love with himself.

Narcissus obviously didn’t realize that he was actually seeing himself [in reflection] and not someone else. What is crazy is that he’d seen Echo as well, and despite her beauty, charm, and love for him, he was just not into her. He had not only seen Echo’s beauty, he had also seen the beauty of the young women around the town. Yet, no beauty compared to when he saw his own beauty. Upon seeing his reflection, he was immediately taken aback with awe.

In Narcissus’ attempt to grasp this newfound love [his reflection] in his life, he reaches into the water to take hold, but instead realizes that taking hold of his reflection is impossible. Confused and disappointed, Narcissus begins talking to his reflection. He pours out his heart in the same way that Echo did in her prayers about unrequited love. Basically, his talks gave way to vain babble because his reflection did not respond back to him.

Because Narcissus couldn’t gain what he needed or desired from his reflection, he stayed in the same spot near the stream until his death. I suppose at some point he figured out that his reflection was actually him and not someone else, but he so admired himself that he could not stop looking at himself. In the end, he refused to leave the spot near the stream even though he basically starved to death. He remained because he was so obsessed with his reflection. It is a terrible end to a promising life because he ended up wasting away into an emaciated skeletal frame of himself.

The Irony Of It All

Ironically, Echo, in her state of invisibility, watched Narcissus in his last moments before death. When Narcissus lamented over his reflection not returning love to him, Echo lamented too. When he shouted “farewell, my dear boy”. She repeated [as she could only do], “farewell”. Then as Narcissus lay down on the ground and died, Echo grieved over him in death and lamented over lost love. It’s a tragic and dramatic story drenched in symbolism and imagery. It all pretty much sums up what actually happens when involved in relationships with narcissists. Yet, the major caveat is the intriguing metamorphosis of both Echo and Narcissus {which I will delve into in a blog to come}. Echo transforms into an invisible voice, and Narcissus transforms into a daffodil [flower]. The irony to me is a narcissist transformed into a flower.