Source Verification: Narcissus and Echo

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

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.

Source: 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.

Source: 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.

Source: 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.

Source: 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.

Source: 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.

Source: 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.

Sources

Primary 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