Source Verification: Narcissus

Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.

What the Sources Attest

Who was Narcissus?

Narcissus was a mortal youth of Greek myth, famous for his beauty and for loving his own reflection. Ovid calls him the son of the river-god Cephisus and the nymph Liriope. Pausanias and Conon both place him at Thespiae in Boeotia, where Pausanias saw his spring at Donacon. He rejected every lover who wanted him. The sources then divide: he wastes away at the water in Ovid, kills himself in Conon, and mourns a dead twin sister in the tradition Pausanias prefers.

Source: Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.339-355

What Greek god is Narcissus?

Narcissus is not a god. Every ancient account treats him as a mortal who dies young, though Ovid gives him a divine father, the river-god Cephisus. The gods in his story act on him. In Ovid, Nemesis grants a rejected lover's prayer that Narcissus should love without winning what he loves. In Conon, the offended god is Eros, and Thespiae's special worship of Eros is explained by Narcissus's death. No ancient source describes a cult of Narcissus himself.

Source: Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.370-406

Why is the flower named after Narcissus?

The myths say the flower grew where he died. In Ovid, the Naiads look for his body to burn it and find a flower with white petals around a yellow centre instead. Conon says it sprang from the ground soaked with his blood. Pausanias disagrees with both. He argues the narcissus existed before the youth, since the older poet Pamphos made it the flower that lured Persephone away. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter tells the same scene.

Source: Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.31.9

Was Narcissus a narcissist?

Not in the modern clinical sense, which was named after him in 1899, not drawn from ancient texts. Ovid does show him proud, scornful of lovers, and consumed by his own image, but the love is a punishment sent by Nemesis. Pausanias rejects even that. In the Thespian version he prefers, Narcissus knew the face in the spring was his own and loved it only because it looked like his dead twin sister.

Source: Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.31.7-9.31.8

Where Accounts Differ

who fathered Narcissus (Cephisus in Ovid, Endymion in Nonnus)
how Narcissus died (wasting away in Ovid, suicide in Conon and P.Oxy. 4711)
whether Narcissus loved his reflection or grieved a twin sister (Pausanias)
whether the narcissus flower came from Narcissus or predates him (Pausanias)
who avenged the rejected suitor (Nemesis in Ovid, Eros in Conon)

Ovid (Metamorphoses 3.339-510) is the only source for Narcissus's parents Cephisus and Liriope, for Tiresias's prophecy, and for Echo. Nonnus (Dionysiaca, Book 48, read in W. H. D. Rouse's translation as quoted by Theoi) instead makes him a son of Endymion.
How Narcissus died differs by source. Ovid has him waste away at the spring. Conon's Narrations (no. 24, surviving in the summary of Photius, read in Brady Kiesling's translation) and the Narcissus poem in P.Oxy. 4711 have him kill himself. Conon is not in the site's source registry, so he is named in the prose but not carried as a line-level citation.
The rejected suitor is unnamed in Ovid and prays to the gods, with Nemesis answering. In Conon he is Ameinias, who kills himself with the sword Narcissus sent him and calls on the god to avenge him; Conon ties the outcome to Eros.
Pausanias (9.31.7) dismisses the reflection story as stupidity and prefers a Thespian tradition (9.31.8) in which Narcissus mourns a twin sister. He also argues (9.31.9), from the poet Pamphos, that the narcissus flower predates the youth, which contradicts both Ovid and Conon on the flower's origin.
The attribution of P.Oxy. 4711 to Parthenius of Nicaea is the first editor's suggestion and is disputed; this page does not treat it as settled.
Pausanias (9.27.1) says the Thespians honoured Eros above all gods and that he does not know who began the custom. The link between that cult and Narcissus comes only from Conon.

Sources

Primary sources

Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.339-355
Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.370-406
Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.474-510
Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.31.7-9.31.8
Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.31.9
Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.27.1
Homeric Hymn to Demeter 5-14