I Once was Echo

Echo & Narcissus

Echo, a wood nymph from Mount Helicon, served for many years as an attendant to Hera. Her original character flaw was that she would never stop talking. Her incessant chatter would distract Hera’s attention from Zeus’s infidelities with other Nymphs. Zeus, who was always on the prowl, decided to use Echo as a distraction whenever he was entertaining Hara’s many sister nymphs on Mount Olympus.   When Hera finally realized Echo’s role in her husband’s Zeus’s infidelities, she was enraged and ordered her to be silent and said to her “from now you will only repeat what others say to you”. No longer would Echo have a voice of her own, only the mimicking of others.  Echo could never start a conversation herself; she could only repeat senselessly what others had just said. Echo opened her mouth to protest but no words came. She had lost her freedom of speech, her independence.

“You may now go”, commanded Hera. “Go now” repeated Echo. She tried to scream but couldn’t make a sound. Horrified, she stumbled away though the woods, lonely and miserable. She ended up sadly mimicking every vocal sound she heard. Her friends lost interest in her and she was soon without any. 

One day she saw Narcissus, the son of the river God, Cephissus and the wood nymph, Liriope. She had never seen such a handsome young man and she fell hopelessly in love with him. Even though he was stunningly beautiful, his character was cold and heartless. He was excessively proud of his own beauty and infatuated with his own virtues, so much so that he had already scorned the romantic advances of dozens of prospective lovers, both male and female. Echo followed Narcissus but always at a distance. She always remained hidden while watching him. 

 Despite her intense longing, she couldn’t speak a word to him.  Every day she followed him and he often caught sight of her, but he was so used to girls falling in love with him that after a while he didn’t notice her at all, in fact became very irritated with her as everywhere he went Echo was there. “Go away I don’t love you”, he shouted. Spurned by Narcissus, Echo grieved and pined at this rejection and unrequited love. She wandered sadly away into the forest and as the weeks passed, she grew weaker, thinner and paler, unable to eat or sleep, until she faded away with grief, nothing left except her voice, which could only repeat what someone else said.  As a result of this rejection by Narcissus, she slowly dies of lost love, a broken heart, until all that is left is her voice. Eventually her body became shriveled and turned to stone.

Echo would have revenge of sorts, for Narcissus, too would die of unrequited love. One of the male suitors who were cruelly rejected by Narcissus prayed to the Gods that Narcissus too should experience the same pain of love unreturned. Nemesis, the goddess of vengeance, heard this plead and agreed that Narcissus’s arrogance and pride deserved punishment for being so vain and cruel to others who tried to love him.

 When he was alone, Nemesis made him sit down by a very still pool and gaze into the dark water. There he saw the reflection of his face and never having seen himself in a mirror, didn’t know he was looking at himself. He had never seen such a beautiful face before and fell in love with it. Day after day he lay staring into the pool. He was puzzled that when he spoke the lips of the face in the pool moved too. When he tried to kiss the face and touched the water, it disappeared in ripples. Many times he bagged the face to come out and love him, but it never stirred. The mirror image of himself disintegrated whenever he disturbed that surface of the water. So close to touching but never able to touch.

Narcissus pined away at his own image. Although Narcissus realized he could never hold his own love, neither could he tear himself away from his own reflection. He stretched out on the grass by the pool and never lifted his gaze from his own reflection. Over and over again he reached out and tried to touch his own reflection. Sadly each time he tried to reach out and touch this beautiful spirit, it would disappear. Many times he bagged the face to come out of the pool and love him, but it never stirred. He couldn’t leave the pool to eat, as each time he got up to leave his reflection would vanish. He couldn’t bear to sleep either, as each time he laid down the reflection would again disappear. Narcissus in the end simply laid there in his rapture even those he was dying. Just before he died of starvation and unreturned love, he cried out, “Beloved in vain, farewell.” From the mountain, Echo called, “Beloved in vain, farewell. He himself now feeling rejected, he could no longer bear it and leaned forwarded in a loving embrace of his own reflection. Where his body lay, a tall flower with white petals grew. See Ovid Metamorphoses III 339-510

Echo, the hyper vigilant had become the mirror image of the oblivious Narcissus. He is untouchable; she eternally longed to be in his arms. He can only think of himself, she only of him. Both He and She cannot identify with others and so make their voices his/her own thereby enlarging their range of personality. She has no voice of her own only a pale imitation of the voices of others. She is anxiously attached to others. She clings insufferably to her objects; Narcissus keeps her forever at a comfortable distance.

Both Echo and Narcissus, the symbol for self-love, Greek gods who spurred the love of others, remain solitary tragic figures, cursed with loneliness and tormented by love they can never have. The theme of love for these two led to tragedy. Echo, who has no self-sufficiency or self-love, can only love another, never herself and Narcissus only himself. Unable to supply each other with what they so desperately need, they make a perfect ill matched pair. Narcissus lost his balance and drowned in another version of himself  as he became over whelmed by his this mere reflection so much so that he simply couldn’t stop himself from drawing nearer and nearer to his own reflection in the pool.

 In the tragic story of Narcissus, it was through Nemesis that he first caught sight of his reflection in the pool and became overwhelmed by his own beauty making him unable to leave, as his reflection had became his love obsession. He slowly died of starvation of both food and spiritually of  unrequited love.

The Greeks called such extreme arrogance and pride - Hubris as portrayed in this myth of Narcissus. The term suggests the impiety of those who have the trait as they see themselves as near or actually divine and therefore scorn human limitations. The Gods almost always punished hubris as it affronts their own divinity.

Hubris – In Greek Tragedy, excessive pride towards or defiance of the Gods, leading to nemesis.

Nemesis – 1. A long-standing rival, enemy, or tormentor.

      2. Retributive justice.

      3. The downfall caused by Nemesis or the agent of such a downfall