The story of Narcissus and Echo

 The characters of Narcissus and Echo are found in the book titled "Metamorphoses" which is authored by the famous Roman poet Ovid. The story of Narcissus and Echo is constructed in Book III of Metamorphoses.

Echo was a beautiful river nymph who lived amidst the beautiful woods. Echo had the habit of chattering ceaselessly about different topics for long. However, this very habit of her later proved to be a curse.  Jupiter, the God of Gods often visited the riverside where he enjoyed his time with the beautiful river nymphs, far away from his court and his wife Juno. His wife was well aware of her husbands philandering personality and hence one day when he was visiting the river nymphs, Juno followed him to catch him red-handed. When Echo learnt that Juno had seen the nymphs lying with Jupiter, she tried to engage Juno with her endless flow of talks. She kept prattling continuously to Juno until the nymphs could flee from the spot. Juno, being furious with Echo for wasting her time by captivating her with her talk, incurred a curse to Echo. She took away her ability to talk as her own will, and instead allowed her only to repeat the last words of the sentence uttered by the other person. And since then Echo could only reply with the last words of the sentence spoken by the other person, as she completely lost her ability to speak first.

Narcissus was born to the river nymph Liriope and Cephisus. He was an attractive baby whose cradle could make people fall in love with him. Narcissus grew up to be a beautiful, attractive young boy who fascinated both boys and girls. One day, Narcissus was wandering through the countryside when Echo saw him and immediately fell in love with him. She followed his footprints which rhythm by rhythm kindled her heart with desire. When Narcissus started speaking, Echo repeated the last words that followed out of his alluring mouth. When Narcissus finally saw her, Echo sprang out of the woods to embrace him with her burning desire. However, he fled away from her, crying that he would rather choose to die than to allow her to touch him. Shattered with his response, she ran into the woods to hide her humiliation but her love for Narcissus kept burning with passion even after facing a shameful rejection. Slowly she became wrinkled and wasted and turned into hard rock with only her voice left. Since then, she has been hiding amidst the woods unseen by the world but heard by everyone.

      One of the nymphs who was mistreated by Narcissus uttered a prayer to the forest Gods, that he would himself fall for another person but will get rejected like he had done to several others. Her prayer was granted.

One day when Narcissus rested beside a clear pool filled with silver waters after being wearied away, his eyes caught a glance on the reflection of his own body in the clear water. He was absolutely enthralled at his own image that his temptation to touch and embrace the boy in the image made him unbearable. He tried to kiss the pool of water but all his efforts were in vain. He stood gazing at those starry eyes, flowing locks, and the lovely face, where a rosy flush stained the snowy whiteness of his complexion. He shunned away the thoughts of food and sleep and sat beside the pool gazing at his own reflection. He started yelling at the spirits of the woods asking the  boy inside the pool to come out and embrace him. He was sure that his appearance was not the barricade between him and the person since numerous river nymphs had previously fallen in love with him. Slowly, he realized that it was his own reflection, with which he had fallen in love with. He wished that he could separate the reflection from the pool of water so that he could embrace him with love. However, that was entirely impossible.  Slowly Narcissus, started to lose the vigor and shine of his youth as he stopped eating or drinking. He lost everything that once captivated the numerous river nymphs including Echo. Narcissus met his sad fate with  a burning desire in his heart, which was to meet and embrace his loved one, which was ironically his own reflection. Echo was starring at the sad fate of Narcissus from a distant and when, Narcissus spoke his last words, she repeated it slowly. Slowly, Narcissus breathed his last, while starring at his dearest person, even though it was actually his own reflection. When the pyre was being prepared for his dead body, his body magically vanished and was replaced with a flower of white petals encircling the yellow centre. 

       Hence, we can see how evident the theme of revenge applies to this story. The self obsessed Narcissus, who always eschewed the people away, at last met his own sad fate, under the curse of the river nymph, whose love was once ignored by him. 

Narcissus and Echo