The Myth of Narcissus
The Beautiful Youth Who Loved Only Himself
Narcissus was a youth of extraordinary beauty — so beautiful that everyone who saw him fell in love with him. But Narcissus rejected every admirer with cold contempt, earning the wrath of the gods.
The nymph Echo loved Narcissus desperately. Cursed by Hera to only repeat the last words spoken to her, Echo could never declare her feelings in her own words. When she tried to embrace Narcissus, he pushed her away cruelly, saying he would rather die than let her have him. Heartbroken, Echo wasted away until only her voice remained, forever repeating the words of others in caves and mountains. Nemesis, the goddess of divine retribution, heard the prayers of all those Narcissus had rejected. She led him to a clear pool where he saw his own reflection for the first time and fell desperately in love with it. He could not leave the reflection, could not touch it, could not look away. He wasted away by the pool, and where his body had lain, a flower grew — the narcissus, forever bending toward its own reflection in the water. The myth gave psychology the concept of narcissism — excessive self-love and the inability to genuinely connect with others. Freud and subsequent psychologists saw in Narcissus a profound truth about the human capacity for self-absorption and the inability to love others when consumed by love of self.
Ovid's Version in Detail
Almost everything people know about Narcissus comes from one long passage in Book 3 of Ovid's Metamorphoses, and it contains details most summaries leave out. Narcissus is the son of the river-god Cephisus and the nymph Liriope, who became pregnant when Cephisus caught her in his streams. Liriope asked the seer Tiresias whether her son would live to a ripe old age. Tiresias answered, "If he does not come to know himself." Ovid presents this as the first proof of Tiresias' prophetic power, and the riddle is only solved by the boy's death.
At sixteen Narcissus was desired by young men and girls alike, and refused them all. Ovid's Echo had already been punished by Juno, who found that the nymph kept her talking while Jupiter's lovers got away. She was left able only to repeat the ends of other people's sentences. Ovid gets a lot of wordplay out of this. Narcissus calls, "Is anyone here?" and she answers, "Here!" He calls, "Let us meet," and she runs out to embrace him. In the end it is not Echo but a rejected young man who prays that Narcissus may love and never win what he loves, and Rhamnusia — Nemesis, named after her shrine at Rhamnous — hears the prayer.
At the pool, Ovid's Narcissus slowly realises the truth, which is what makes it a tragedy rather than a joke. "Iste ego sum," he says: "I am he." He knows the image is himself and still cannot leave it. He wishes he could be separated from his own body, and he wastes away. The story continues after his death. The naiads and dryads mourn him and Echo repeats their laments, and in the underworld he keeps gazing at his reflection in the waters of the Styx. When the nymphs came to build his pyre there was no body, only a flower with a yellow centre and white petals.
Older and Alternative Versions
Ovid was not the first to tell the story, and other versions are very different:
- Conon's version (preserved in a summary by Photius) sets the story at Thespiae in Boeotia. Narcissus spurns a suitor called Ameinias and sends him a sword, and Ameinias kills himself at Narcissus' door, calling on the gods for revenge. Narcissus then falls in love with his reflection and kills himself too. The Thespians afterwards honoured Eros more earnestly. There is no Echo in this version.
- Pausanias saw the spring of Narcissus at Donacon in Thespian territory. He thought it absurd that anyone could fail to tell a reflection from a person. He reports another version in which Narcissus had a twin sister whom he loved, and after her death he looked into the spring to see something like her face.
- A fragmentary papyrus poem, sometimes attributed to Parthenius, suggests a Hellenistic Greek version existed before Ovid. Pairing Narcissus with Echo, however, is widely thought to be Ovid's own invention.
The flower was much older than the myth. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Gaia produces a wonderful narcissus as a lure, and Persephone reaches for it just before Hades seizes her. Pausanias makes the same point, citing the poet Pamphos. Plutarch links the plant's name with narkē, "numbness," because of its heavy scent, and the same root survives in "narcotic."
In Art and Modern Thought
Narcissus gazing into the water was one of the most popular scenes in Roman wall-painting. Dozens of versions survive from Pompeii and Herculaneum, often with Eros present and the boy leaning on his spear. Later treatments include the Narcissus attributed to Caravaggio in the Palazzo Barberini in Rome, Poussin's Echo and Narcissus in the Louvre, John William Waterhouse's Echo and Narcissus (1903), and Salvador Dalí's Metamorphosis of Narcissus (1937), which Dalí showed to Freud in London.
The psychological term came before Freud. Havelock Ellis used the myth in 1898 to describe sexual self-absorption, Paul Näcke coined "Narzissmus" in 1899, and Freud's essay On Narcissism: An Introduction (1914) made it a central idea of psychoanalysis. "Narcissistic personality disorder" is a much later clinical category. Ovid's character does not fit it well: his problem is not arrogance or a need to be admired but an impossible love that he understands and cannot escape. See Greek mythology in psychology and Echo and Narcissus for more.
Ancient sources
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.339–510 — the full story: Liriope and Cephisus, Tiresias' prophecy, Echo's curse by Juno, Nemesis, "iste ego sum," the reflection in the Styx and the flower.
- Conon, Narrations 24 (in Photius, Bibliotheca 186) — the Thespian version with the suitor Ameinias, the sword and Narcissus' suicide.
- Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.31.7–9 — the spring at Donacon, the twin-sister version, and his argument that the narcissus flower was older than the youth.
- Homeric Hymn to Demeter 1–18 — Gaia's marvellous narcissus lures Persephone just before her abduction.
Frequently asked questions
Who were Narcissus' parents?
In Ovid, the river-god Cephisus and the nymph Liriope. This makes Narcissus a Boeotian, which fits Conon and Pausanias placing his story near Thespiae.
How did Narcissus die?
In Ovid he wastes away beside the pool, unable to leave his reflection. In Conon's version he kills himself with a sword in remorse and despair.
Did Narcissus know he was looking at himself?
In Ovid, eventually yes. At first he thinks the reflection is another youth, then cries "I am he," realising it is his own image, and still cannot stop loving it.
Is the story of Echo and Narcissus originally Greek?
Both figures are Greek, but the version that links them seems to be Ovid's creation in Latin. Greek sources such as Conon and Pausanias tell the Narcissus story without Echo.