Echo and Narcissus were desperately in love. Echo, with the handsome young Greek, and Narcissus, with his own reflection.
Echo was an Oread, or a nymph of the mountains and grottoes. As a nymph, she was graced with youthful beauty, and the ability to charm anyone with her talents, including the Greek gods. Echo's talent was her sweet and captivating voice, which would end up being her painful legacy.
Echo spent a great deal of her time in service to Zeus, who frequently seduced other nymphs. So that Zeus could succeed in his carnal pursuits, Echo would distract his queen, Hera, by singing to her with her beautiful voice. Though seemingly enchanted by the nymph, Hera eventually caught on, and punished Echo in a fashion befitting a woman scorned. Hera was known for her scorn when it came to her husband's infidelities, and this situation proved no different for the naive Echo. Hera robbed echo of her beautiful voice for her misguided loyalty, leaving behind only the ability to repeat the last syllable spoken to her.
Living this way was not easy for Echo, and this was obvious when she found herself hopelessly in love with a handsome man named Narcissus. Narcissus showed interest in the gorgeous nymph, but was offended when she seemingly teased him by repeating the last few syllables of everything he said to her. Thus, he spurned her affections out of annoyance. Devastated by this rejection, Echo retreated to a cave where she died, broken hearted. Her bones turned to stone, and her ghostly echo remained in the air.
The Greek gods, often malevolent and rarely fair when it came to human foibles, promptly punished Narcissus for his treatment of the sweet nymph. They decided that an apt punishment would be to make Narcissus fall in love with his own image, subsequently driving him crazy from the desire to fulfill his passions, and the impossibility of the love being realized. This love was discovered one day while Narcissus was leaning over a spring. catching a glimpse of himself in the reflective waters, her was overtaken by a desire so great that he could not move away from the vision he saw before him.
Narcissus languished at the spring, tortured by this person who would not return his affections, and by the inability to see his desperate love fulfilled. wasting away, all that remained of narcissus was the flower that now bears his name, a beautiful bloom that grows along streams and springs.
Sources consulted:
Bonnefoy, Y. Greek and Egyptian Mythologies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.
Graves, R. The Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology. Barnes and Noble Books, 1994.
