How Narcissus Ruined Echo: A Tragic Story of Love and Obsession

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The myth of Echo and Narcissus explores the boundaries between love and obsession, and warns that obsessive love, including self-love, has far from pleasant consequences. When Liriope asked Tiresias, a powerful oracle, if her newborn child would live happily ever after, she received a very ambiguous answer …

The Narcissus Myth is a story of narcissism in its most extreme form. However, Narcissus is not the only hero in this story. The echo also plays an important role. The story of Echo and Narcissus is a story about the power of love, love so strong that it can turn into an obsession.

1. Echo and Narcissus

When Liriopa saw her son, she realized that he was incredibly handsome. By the time Narcissus grew up, it was obvious to everyone. Men and women tried to get his attention and love, but no one seemed to interest him.

One of the women who fell in love with Narcissus was the nymph Echo (from the Greek word for "sound"). Echo was once a woman who loved to talk and was known for interrupting others in conversation. However, she made the mistake of helping Zeus, the king of the Greek Olympian gods, hide her love affairs from her wife Hera.

Whenever Hera came close to catching Zeus with someone else, Echo disoriented the goddess with long stories, giving Zeus time to leave. Once Hera realized what Echo was doing, she cursed her so that she could never speak her thoughts out loud again. Instead, Echo can only repeat the last words spoken by someone else.

2. Meeting

One day, Echo saw Narcissus in the forest and, fascinated by his appearance, began to spy on him. The girl followed the young man and was more and more drawn to him, but there was one problem. Echo couldn't speak to Narcissus. The only way to let him know how he is feeling is to wait for him to say something. At some point, Narcissus realized that he was being followed.

3. The tragic fate of Echo

Echo ran into the forest with tears in her eyes. The refusal was too harsh to accept. The love she felt for Narcissus was so strong and obsessive that Echo could not come to terms with the way he treated her, and decided to live alone in the desert. In the end, her senses were so strong that her body withered, and the only thing left behind was her bones and voice. Echo's voice continued to live in the forest, and the hills are where she could still be heard.

Nevertheless, the tragic end of Echo did not go unnoticed. Since she was very popular with other nymphs and forest creatures, many were enraged by Narcissus's deed, which caused her so much unnecessary suffering. Nemesis, goddess of vengeance, heard voices from the forest calling for revenge and decided to help.

4. Obsession

Nemesis drew Narcissus to a spring with crystal clear and calm water. Narcissus, tired of hunting, decided to take a break and drink some water. Having drunk from the spring, he looked into the water surface and saw his face clearer than ever before. The more he drank water, the more he looked at his reflection, admiring it. Admiration has become a miracle, a miracle has become love, and love has become an obsession. Narcissus could not move. His image completely neutralized him when he burned with desire for the person he saw in the water of the spring. So, he became chained to his own reflection. Unable to cope with his attraction to himself, he lay down on the grass and slowly began to die, turning into a daffodil flower.

5. Ameinius

According to Conon, a Greek mythographer who lived between the 1st century BC. NS. and the 1st century A. D. BC, Echo was not the only one who found a tragic end after loving Narcissus. Ameinius was one of the first to really push hard to win Narcissus's love. The latter rejected Ameinius and sent him a sword. Ameinius used this sword to commit suicide on Narcissus's doorstep, asking Nemesis to avenge him. Nemesis then lured Narcissus to the source, causing him to fall in love with himself.

6. Alternative versions

In addition, there are several alternative versions of the myth of Echo and Narcissus. According to the Parthenius of Nicaea, Narcissus did not turn into a flower, having lost the will to live. Instead, Parthenius presents a version in which the myth ends with Narcissus's bloody suicide.

Pausanias also presents an alternate version in which Narcissus had a twin sister. They looked exactly the same, wore the same clothes, and hunted together. Narcissus was madly in love with his sister, and after her death he visited the source to look at his reflection, thinking that it was his sister.

According to Longus, a Greek writer of the 2nd century A. D. BC, 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 come to terms with the fact that a simple nymph sings better than him, so he punished her. Pan drove the animals and people around Echo crazy. In their madness, they attacked the nymph and devoured her.

Then Echo's voice spread throughout the world, carried away by the animals and humans who had swallowed her. In the end, Gaia (Goddess of the Earth) hid Echo's voice inside her. Echo's cruel punishment for her divine artistic ability is reminiscent of the myth of Arachne, who was also punished by Athena for surpassing the goddess in the art of weaving.

7. The myth of Echo and Narcissus in art

The Echo and Narcissus myth has been especially popular in art for centuries. It is difficult to keep track of all the works of art inspired by this story. From medieval retellings such as The Lies of Narcissus (12th century) to Hermann Hesse's Narcissus and Goldmund (1930), this story continues to fascinate and inspire. Psychoanalysis and, more specifically, Sigmund Freud's 1914 essay played an important role in the reception of the myth. of the year "On Narcissism". There Freud described the state of excessive selfishness and standardized the name Narcissism, derived from Narcissus, to describe the stage between autoeroticism and object love.

Echo and Narcissus chose death or rather nothingness after their hearts were broken. However, while Echo lost his will to live after being rejected by a person she liked, Narcissus decided to give up life, realizing that he could not love anyone but himself. If you think about it, the myth of Narcissus is not at all about a boy who loved his reflection in the water. It is about the boy's inability to love others besides himself. Above all, the transformation stories of Echo and Narcissus can be read as a warning that love and obsession often go side by side.

And in continuation of the topic, read the story of the Delphic Oracle and several versions of why it was so important to the ancient Greeks.