Narcissus and Echo
Narcissus and Echo is Ovid's story of two failed loves punished the same way. Echo, a nymph cursed to only repeat the last words spoken to her, falls for the beautiful Narcissus and wastes away to a voice alone when he rejects her. Narcissus is punished in turn: he falls in love with his own reflection in a pool, unable to possess what he sees, and wastes away until a flower is found where his body lay.
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What Led To It
Ovid places the story early in a run of Theban myths, following Tiresias directly from his blinding and the gift of prophecy Zeus gives him after settling an argument with Hera. Liriope, a river-nymph, asks Tiresias about her newborn son's future purely as a private worry about a beautiful child; the prophecy's odd wording, that he will live long only if he never knows himself, gives the whole story its shape without Ovid needing to explain what it means until the very end.
The Myth
The blind seer Tiresias, asked by Narcissus's mother Liriope whether her strikingly beautiful son would live to old age, gives an answer that makes no sense at the time: yes, if he never knows himself. The prophecy sits unexplained until the story's very end, when it turns out to describe exactly how Narcissus dies - not by any ordinary danger, but by finally seeing and understanding his own reflection.
Echo enters the story already under a curse. Hera once used her long, distracting stories to keep other nymphs' affairs with Zeus hidden; when Hera discovers the trick, she punishes Echo by taking away her own voice for ordinary speech, leaving her able only to repeat the last words anyone else says. Echo sees Narcissus hunting in the woods and falls for him immediately, following him at a distance, unable to speak first. When Narcissus, sensing he is being followed, calls out, Echo can only answer with his own last words back at him. She finally reveals herself and tries to embrace him; he recoils, telling her he would rather die than let her touch him. Echo, ashamed, hides in the woods, and grief wastes her body away until nothing is left but her voice and her bones turned to stone - the disembodied voice that answers back in empty places ever after.
Narcissus's own turn comes when one of his rejected admirers prays to be avenged, asking that he too love without ever being able to possess what he loves. Nemesis hears the prayer and grants it. Narcissus, tired from hunting, stops to drink at a clear, untouched pool and sees a face looking back at him - and falls in love with it, not realizing it is his own reflection. He reaches for it, speaks to it, tries to kiss it, and each time the image breaks apart in the disturbed water only to reappear as still as before once it settles. He cannot leave the pool and cannot have what he sees. Ovid has him finally understand the truth himself - iste ego sum, "that one is me" - which does nothing to free him, since knowing the reflection is his own does not make it any less unreachable.
Narcissus wastes away at the pool's edge exactly as Echo wasted away in the woods, his strength and beauty draining out of him while Echo, still following him from a distance and still capable only of repeating his words, echoes his last cries back at him. When his body is finally looked for, it cannot be found; in its place, at the water's edge, is a new flower with white petals around a yellow center, the narcissus that carries his name ever after.
What Followed
Ovid closes the story with Narcissus's sisters, the Naiads, preparing a funeral pyre for a body that is never found, discovering the flower in its place instead. The name narcissus stuck to the flower in both Greek and Latin, and the story became the fixed reference point for self-absorbed love in later literature and, much later, in the modern psychological term narcissism, which draws on the myth's shape rather than on anything Ovid himself claims about character or personality. Pausanias records a rationalized local tradition tied to a real spring near Thespiae: in this version, Narcissus's obsession with his reflection is explained not as vanity but as grief, since the face in the water reminds him of his dead twin sister, whom he resembled closely enough that gazing at himself felt like seeing her again.
What did Tiresias's prophecy about Narcissus actually mean?
Asked by Narcissus's mother Liriope whether her son would live to old age, the blind seer Tiresias answered yes, but only if he never knew himself. The line makes no sense until the story's end, when it turns out to predict Narcissus's death by finally recognizing that the face he has fallen in love with in a pool is his own reflection.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.339-350
Why can Echo only repeat what other people say?
Hera cursed her for it. Echo used to distract Hera with long stories while other nymphs slipped away from affairs with Zeus that Hera was trying to catch them at; once Hera realized the trick, she took away Echo's ability to speak on her own initiative, leaving her able only to repeat the last words anyone else says.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.356-369
What happened when Echo tried to approach Narcissus?
Unable to speak first because of her curse, Echo could only answer Narcissus's own calls back at him with his own words. When she finally showed herself and tried to embrace him, he recoiled and told her he would rather die than let her touch him. Ashamed, she hid in the woods and wasted away until only her voice and stone remained.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.370-401
Who punished Narcissus, and how?
One of his rejected admirers prayed to be avenged, asking that Narcissus too love without ever being able to possess what he loved. Nemesis granted the prayer: Narcissus stopped to drink at a clear pool, saw his own reflection, and fell in love with it without realizing it was his own face, unable to ever hold what he saw.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.370-436
How does Narcissus die, and what happens to his body?
He wastes away at the pool's edge, unable to leave the reflection even after realizing it is his own face. Ovid has Echo, still following him and still able only to repeat his words, echo his last cries back at him. When people come to look for his body afterward, it cannot be found; a new flower, the narcissus, is found in its place instead.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.474-510
Did every ancient source say Narcissus fell for his own reflection out of vanity?
No. Pausanias records a different, rationalized local tradition tied to a real spring near Thespiae: Narcissus stares at his reflection not out of vanity but grief, because it reminds him of a dead twin sister he closely resembled. Ovid's Metamorphoses, by contrast, presents the self-love itself, engineered by Nemesis, as the point of the story.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.31.7-9
Where Accounts Differ
- the rejected suitor's identity (unnamed in Ovid, named Ameinias in Conon)
- why Narcissus stares at his reflection: vanity engineered by Nemesis (Ovid) versus grief for a dead twin sister (Pausanias)
- Ovid's Metamorphoses is the fullest connected narrative and the only source for Echo's part in the story. Pausanias records a separate, rationalized local tradition at a real spring near Thespiae, explaining Narcissus's fascination with his reflection as grief for a dead twin sister rather than vanity; this page follows Ovid's fuller account while recording Pausanias's variant explanation as a genuinely different tradition. A further Greek tradition (recorded by Conon and later authors) names Narcissus's rejected suitor as a youth called Ameinias, but Ovid's own telling leaves the suitor unnamed, and this page follows Ovid rather than combining the two.
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Mythology
Figures In This Myth
Related Terms
Referenced By
Sources
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.339-350
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.356-369
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.370-401
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.370-436
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.474-510
- Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.31.7-9
- Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth (1993)