Narcissus, The Story Of An Incorrigible Egocentric
At the height of the Greek Empire, there was a young man who went by the name of Narcissus. He was handsome, cheerful and, above all, elegant, which made young Greek girls crazy about him. However, one of Narcissus’ great faults is that he only knew how to like himself. No matter how beautiful or rich the women who approached him, he always rejected them. His ego and vanity kept him from liking anyone but himself.
A clear example of this was when Echo, a nymph from Monte Helicón, tried to catch young Narcissus’ attention with her beautiful and innocent voice. In fact, ancient myths and legends said that the voice of this female deity could use the most beautiful and captivating words ever spoken. However, a fatal curse falls upon Echo. Hera, jealous of this nymph, did not want her husband Zeus to be dazzled and, therefore, cursed her, taking her voice and teasing her, and could only use the last word of the person she was talking to.
Echo’s Unconditional Love for Narcissus
But as we all know, love is such a strong feeling, Eco couldn’t allow herself to lose Narcissus. So one day, she followed him stealthily through the woods to let him know her deep and true feelings. But, of course, that seemed impossible due to its most horrible curse. And what did Eco do? He used his syntony with nature and animals so that they could tell Narcissus that Eco loved him deeply.
Narcissus did not take this nymph’s statement very seriously. How was it possible for him to fall in love with a mute girl? HE, who was the most beautiful and charming of the entire Peloponnese peninsula. HE who could have the most beautiful and charming young women in all of Athens, Sparta or Corinth. HE, who had no rival on earth… Definitely, Narcissus did not understand how that could happen.
A terrible curse falls on Narcissus
After Narcissus’s sarcastic reaction, Echo retired to the caves to spend the rest of his life there, sad and suffering from lack of love. However, before her death, the nymph prayed to Nemesis, deity of vengeance and divine justice, who cursed Narcissus so that he would fall in love with his own reflection.
And how did this curse have an effect… It happened just as he went, one day, to the Stygian river to cool off a bit. He approached and saw himself reflected in the water, thinking: “Wow, how beautiful I am!”, “I’m going to get closer to see a little more of my beauty” . Narcissus approached the edge, fell into the water and drowned. The curse proposed by Echo worked perfectly, and Narcissus spent the rest of eternity in the underworld tormented by his pride and vanity. Over the centuries, the story spread that, in this place, a very particular flower grew, which was distinguished by its enormous beauty and the color of its petals. She was given the name Narcissus.
If we bring this account of Greek mythology to today, we would tell everyone to run away from vain and narcissistic people, as they would only bring headaches, since they are people who think, most of the time, only about themselves. Their ego and their pride would often prevent them from empathizing with others; something that suffered Echo, the protagonist of this sad story, with which many of you can identify.
