Echo And Narcissus In Ovid's Metamorphoses

Ovid’s Metamorphoses is a collection of tales that follows the short stories of people that will end up being completely different in the end. In one of the stories we follow Echo and Narcissus. Echo is a nymph who falls in love with Narcissus but, he is not that intrigued. In a tragic end Echo ends up wasting away pining over Narcissus. Unexpectedly, Narcissus stops to drink from a small pond and when he gazes at his own reflection he ends up falling in love with himself. Hopelessly, he is so in love with himself that he cannot bring himself to leave the pond and he stays until he starves to death. He is mourned by many and when he dies and when all of his admirers go to look for his body all that is left is a daffodil flower, also known as the Narcissus flower. Out of all of the other misadventures in Ovid’s tales this one struck me as the most relevant to today’s society. Narcissism is commonly portrayed everywhere we look. It seems during this generation in time everyone is in some …show more content…
There is always going to be a form of the desire to have something that is unobtainable just as Echo wanted Narcissus’ affection. When someone is so self-absorbed it is common that they miss what is going around them just as Narcissus missed that it was a trap for him to see his own reflection in the pond. It is also very common for people that are self-obsessed to never find love because they never find enough of themselves in someone else. It is seen that all of this self-obsession will not pay off in the end. Narcissus becomes so unaware of the severity of his own absorbance that it kills him in the end which should make the reader question if it is all worth it in the end. It is such a hefty price to pay to be so involved with yourself and in reality the side effects are just as dangerous. This tale really shines light on this topic and allows the reader to question their current narcissistic