Narcissus In Greek Mythology

Improved Essays
In Greek mythology we are fronted with a character named Narcissus. He is the son of the river god Cephissus and nymph Liriope, and is known for his unparalleled beauty; a man so handsome that everyone who meets him instantly falls madly in love. Unaware of his allure, Narcissus does not comprehend their infatuation and wishes they would simply leave him alone. As the tale goes, one day Narcissus is strolling through the woods and comes upon a river. When he kneels down to take a sip of water, he sees his face for the first time and immediately falls in love with himself. Swooning, he desperately tries to kiss and hold the reflection only to come up empty handed. Realizing that his desires cannot be fulfilled, Narcissus dies of despair at the

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Apollo has been called "The most Greek of all the gods". He is thought of as a beautiful figure in Greek poetry, depicted with long tangleless hair and a face of the beardless youth. He's treated as the master musician, the archer god, the god of light, the speaker of truth, and the healer. He's sought out by the people as an Oracle, the common folk looking towards him to know their prophecies and predict their futures. Apollo at Delphi was a purely beneficial power, since he guided the people to have a glance at the God's wills.…

    • 191 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Eurycleia In The Odyssey

    • 724 Words
    • 3 Pages

    I believe this passage means is that people will see what they want to see, mostly if they have a deep enough connection with the person. Eurycleia was a nurse to Odysseus and seeing him ‘standing in the sea of dead bodies’ she was proud of him. She tells Penelope that seeing him like that 'it would of warmed your heart' showing us that those who truly love Odysseus would not be horrified by his actions. This connection is important because we see it throughout the book. That if you care and love for that person enough, you will do anything for them.…

    • 724 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    This Greek Myth attempts to discourage two types of undesirable behavior. One behavior that is not acceptable is deceptiveness. Another undesirable behavior is being scornful and rejecting love. Echo was deceptive due to the fact that she was interfering with Zeus and Hera’s relationship and not allowing Hera to catch Zeus while he was committing adultery. Narcissus was scornful by rejecting love and throwing Echo to the ground.…

    • 79 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Composed of Flaws As I acquire more knowledge in Greek mythology, my interest in the imperfections of the Olympians increases because human beings are extremely similar to them. Athena was seen as one of the most important goddesses due to her intelligence, but I am curious to find out if she ever failed while constructing a plan or a strategy. For example, failure is one of the most common defects found upon human beings because one must fail before achieving great success. Furthermore, Athena happened to be one of the virgin goddesses and wanted to remain pure, so I want to know if she ever fell in love with a mortal or immortal.…

    • 271 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This is especially true in the story of Echo and Narcissus. Echo caught sight of Narcissus and immediately fell in love with him. The more she followed him, the fire in her heart grew like Sulphur on a torch. One day, Narcissus got lost in the woods but fortunately, Echo was there to rescue him. Unfortunately for Echo, Narcissus was displeased with her to say the least.…

    • 547 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Narcissus Research Paper

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Narcissus was a self-centered Greek, who was obsessed with his own appearance. He was the son of Liriope, a Nymph and Kehisos, a Greek river-god. Narcissus’s love for himself got to such an unimaginable point that he ignored other people’s love for him. There are many Greek myths that explain the story of Narcissus and the curses brought about by his beauty, as well as the origin of the syndrome narcissism (Theio) (Greek-myth).Due to Narcissus’s beauty, many humans admired and loved him.…

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What Is Nemesis Hateful

    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “He was a young man who was very arrogant and disdained those who loved him. Nemesis led him to a pool, where he saw his reflection and fell in love with it. Unable to abandon his reflection, he died there.” (Nemesis 1).…

    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Narcissus Ethical Dilemma

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Moral/Ethical Dilemma: In what ways could Echo blame herself for Narcissus’ death? Echo would blame herself for trying too hard to love Narcissus, she basically stalked him. She could've blamed herself for him running away in the first place. Also, because she was head over heals for this guy, that just fell in love with his own reflection and died.…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    This Greek myth attempts to discourage two types of undesirable behavior. The immoral behavior Echo practices is gossipping,and covering for the crimes of Zeus. The undesirable behavior practiced by Narcissus is mistreating others, only loving himself, and being egotistical. Echo attempted to cover for Zeus’ crimes by delaying Hera with gossip. Narcissus mistreats Echo because he can only love himself.…

    • 93 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Sure enough, Narcissus was relaxing by a lake one day when he caught a glimpse of his own reflection in the water, transfixed by his own beauty, he too fell deeply in love with the image of himself. But to his misery, he could never touch or embrace his reflexion. Echo saw her lover and felt sorry for him, however, there was nothing she could do but repeat what had already been said. As Narcissus threw himself into the lake to be united with his reflection he began to drown, to his despair, he called out to the forest as he sunk. “Farewell, dear boy, beloved in vain!”…

    • 1355 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Social Media Narcissism

    • 1167 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 6 Works Cited

    Narcissists are great at being chameleons. They are known for being smart, confident, and articulate, and usually very charming when we first get to know them. Oftentimes they are obnoxious, and love themselves anyway…at least outwardly. More striking — and more surprising — they were aware that people who knew them well did not have quite the same high opinion of them. They acknowledged that those people would indeed see them as self-absorbed and disagreeable.…

    • 1167 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 6 Works Cited
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hubris In Greek Mythology

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Throughout Greek mythology and culture, hubristic ideals were used to teach lessons about pride. To have hubris means to have excessive pride, and in Greek mythology it is almost always directed towards a god or deity. These types of myths were used to show the major disadvantages to being hubristic, so that people will learn from those mistakes. Some major examples of what can occur if one was hubristic in Greek mythology can be seen in the examples of Odysseus vs. Prometheus, Achilles vs. Hector, and Arachne vs. Athena.…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Walking outside at the end of the night to small streaks of light just coming up from the horizon. The Sun is starting to rise. People have told stories as to why the sun comes up since the beginning of human story telling. For example, according to an Aboriginal story from Australia the sun rises because the animals were tired of living in the dark so they pushed the sun up with sticks. Now the sun walks across the sky with flames only for it to be burned out when in reaches the West side (Worldstroies.org).…

    • 1015 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Also he had much joy to gaze at himself in the river" (l. 393-400). Firstly, the Page expressing his closeness to the Young Syrian as being closer than a brother could be a reference made to the Bible, namely to the figures of Jonathan and David, and their friendship in the books of Samuel. Observations made by scholars, such as John Bosnell, suggest that the relationship between David and Jonathan is more than merely a platonic friendship, and is rather classified as a romantic and intimate love, despite the potential lack of physical intimacy (135-137). Moreover, the Syrian’s behaviour of gazing at himself in the river is consistent with the story of Narcissus, who, after seeing his reflection in a river for the first time, falls in love with himself and drowns. During the 1800s, Narcissus was a common metaphor for homosexuality as admiring oneself is an “expression of the love of the likeness of oneself” (Primorac,…

    • 1162 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In their exchange, Dumbledore reveals the secret of the mirror and how it has caused men to “waste away before it, entranced by what they have seen” (Rowling, 213). The parallel to Ovid’s account of Narcissus in his collection of myths told by Metamorphoses is blatant. In both cases, the young men are enraptured by the images they see; so much so as they both become “inordinately obsessed” (Spencer, 59) with this manifestation of their deepest, most personal desires. The same images that bring the boys extreme elation brings also affliction at what can never be; Harry feels a “powerful ache inside him, half joy, half terribly sadness” (Rowling, 209). Narcissus can never touch his image, he can never act upon the “burn[ing] love” (Ovid, 45) he feels for himself; Harry can never feel the touch of his parents, never experience the proximity of his family.…

    • 1531 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays