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In Greek mythology, Narcissus or Narkissos ( Greek Ναρκισσος), a hero of the territory of Thespiae in Boeotia who was renowned for his beauty and his pride. Several versions of his myth have survived. Ovid's, from his Metamorphoses, (3.341–510) is probably the best known. According to Ovid, Narcissus was the son of the Boeotian river Cephissus and the nymph Liriope (otherwise unknown). Narcissus spurned the love of both boys and girls. A nymph, Echo, loved him, but she could never get his attention. He was riveted to the water's edge, entranced by the beautiful boy he thought he glimpsed within, and she eventually pined away longing for him... until nothing was left of Echo but her sad, pleading voice. Narcissus thought the image in the water was real and pined away with desire, eventually transforming into the flower that bears his name.
Pausanias (9.31.7) locates the spring of Narcissus at Donacon 'Reed-bed' in the territory of the Thespians. Pausianias finds it incredible that someone could not distinguish a reflection from a real person, and cites a less known variant in which Narcissus had a twin sister. Both dressed the same and wore the same kind of clothes and hunted together. Narcissus fell in love with her. When she died, Narcissus pined after her and pretended that the reflection he saw in the water was his sister.
Another version claims that Ameinias, a young man, loved Narcissus but was scorned. To tell Ameinias off, Narcissus gave him a sword as a present. Ameinias used the sword to kill himself on Narcissus' doorstep and prayed to Nemesis that Narcissus would one day know the pain of unrequited love. This curse was fulfilled when Narcissus became entranced by the image of his reflection in the pool.
As Pausanias also notes, yet another tale is that the narcissus flower was created to entice Demeter's daughter Core away from her companions to enable Hades to abduct her.
NarcissismNarcissism is the pattern of traits and behaviors which involve infatuation and obsession with one's self to the exclusion of others and the egotistic and ruthless pursuit of one's gratification, dominance and ambition. On the outside, a narcissist appear is named after Narcissus, and both derive from the Greek word narke 'numb' from which we also get the word narcotic. Thus for the Greeks Narcissus stood for callousness and insensitivity, as he was emotionally numb to the entreaties of those who fell in love with his beauty.
1 See also
- NarcoticThe term narcotic derived from the Greek word for stupor, originally referred to a variety of substances that induced sleep (such state is narcosis . legal context, narcotic refers to opium, opium derivatives, and their semisynthetic or totally synthetic
2 External links
- The story of Narcissus An audio version (in MP3 and other formats) of the original story, compiled from primary sources.
