Resources for Literature:

Stop! Think!

Did you know: The group of flowers known as narcissi (which includes the daffodil) was named after Narcissus.  The flowers tend to grow near water, and bend their heads down as if gazing at their reflections.

Other Gods and Goddesses:

Poussin’s Echo and Narcissus (1628-30)

Narcissus and Echo

Doomed self-love

Narcissus was the beautiful son of the river god Cephissus and the nymph Leiriope.  His mother was told that he would live a long life as long as he did never saw his own features.

Narcissus rejected many offers of love.  He angered the goddess Nemesis by rejecting Echo, and she arranged for him to see his own reflection in a river, whereupon he fell in love with himself.  Different versions of the story tell of how he could not tear himself away from his reflection and died at the waterside, or killed himself, desperate that his love could never be satisfied.

In another version of the story, Narcissus gazed in the waters to console himself over the death of his beloved twin sister, by gazing upon her likeness.

Narcissus and Echo

Echo brought the wrath of the goddess Hera – Zeus’ main consort – upon herself.  She engaged Hera in conversation so that Zeus could pursue his amorous exploits without detection.  But when Hera discovered the deception she punished Echo for her verbosity by condemning her to endlessly repeat other people’s words.

After this, Echo fell in love with Narcissus, but he rejected her.  Distraught, the nymph pined away until all that was left of her was her voice repeating other people’s words.

In another version of Echo’s story, she was famed for her musical talents and singing voice.  When she rejected Pan’s advances, he drove his shepherds mad so that they killed her and tore her into tiny pieces that were scattered all over the world.  Thus, returned to the earth, Echo continues her talent: imitating voices and music everywhere.

Narcissism

In psychoanalysis, a narcissist is someone who is excessively self-involved, or self-obsessed.  The condition is understood as a form of emotional immaturity.