The Story of Echo and Narcissus is one of the most enduring tales from the Greek Mythology.
It is a sad tale of self-love and unrequited love, one which has been told over hundreds of years. Certainly to warn about the toxicity about both : self-love as well as unrequited love.
The doom of Echo
Echo was a nymph from Mount Cithaeron in Boeotia.
The beautiful Echo was courted by both Apollo and Pan, but would run faster and hide herself cleverly. Zeus did use Echo but for her animated and clever speech. He soon discovered that his stern wife enjoyed talking with Echo and was happy to spend time gossiping with her. Whenever Hera was spending time with her friend Echo, Zeus was free to do whatever he desired.
But after a while Hera understood what was going on and as usual punished not her guilty husband but the innocent nymph. Hera blocked the voice of Echo and the poor nymph could only repeat the words of others.
The Narcissistic Narcissus
Narcissus was a deer hunter but his beauty was such that most of the people, mortals or immortals would fall under his spell.
An Unrequited Love
One Day in the forest, the mountain nymph Echo saw Narcissus, the deer hunter, and fell passionately in love.
As she followed him, hiding from him Narcissus felt a presence and shouted “who’s there?» again and again, only to have Echo repeat his words.
After a while, a desperate Echo showed herself and tried to kiss Narcissus who rejected her cruelly. The poor nymph was heartbroken.
The doom of Narcissus
This angered Nemesis, the goddess of revenge, who then lead Narcissus to a pool deep in the woods where for the first time of his life he saw his reflection.
The naive Narcissus did not understand that he was gazing at his own reflection. He felt passionately in love with his own image and was unable to leave until he leaned over to exchange a kiss, felt and drowned.
Narcissus gave his name to self-love : narcissism, narcissistic.
And to a flower…