Few days ago , someone said I am narcissist lol. Today we had a conversation with some friends about narcissists and narcissism. So I thought it would be a good idea to describe the real story of Narcissus from the Greek mythology.

When Zeus came to the mountains, the wood nymphs rushed to embrace him. They played with him in icy waterfalls and laughed in lush green glades.
Zeus’ wife, Hera, was very jealous and often she searched the mountains trying to catch her husband with the nymphs.
Echo was one of the nymphs. She was very beautiful and she used to amuse Hera with long and entertaining stories, while Zeus took advantage to ravish the other mountain nymphs.
When Hera discovered the trickery she punished the talkative Echo by taking away her voice. Hera said to Echo “Your tongue has made a fool of me! Your voice will be more brief, my dear! You will always have the last word, but never the first!”
Echo fell in love with a youth named Narcissus, who was the son of the blue Nymph Leiriope of Thespia. The River god Cephisus had once encircled Leirope with the windings of his streams, and thus trapping her, had seduced the nymph. Narcissus was their child.
Concerned about Narcissus welfare, Leiriope went to consult the oracle called Teiresias, regarding her son’s future. Teiresias told the nymph that Narcissus “would live to a ripe old age, as long as he never knew himself”.
Narcissus was handsome even as a child and grew even more so as he matured. By the age of sixteen already had left a trail of broken hearts, from rejected lovers.
One day, when Narcissus was out hunting, Echo followed the handsome youth through the woods, longing to address him but unable to speak first. When Narcissus finally heard footsteps, shouted “who’s there?” , Echo answered “Who’s there?”. And so it went, untill finally Echo showed herself and rushed to embrace the lovely youth.
He pulled away from the nymph. Narcissus left Echo heartbroken and she spent the rest of her life in lonely glens, pinning away for the love she never knew, untill only her voice remained.
Echo humiliated and filled with sorrow, wandered the mountains untill she found a lonely cave to live in. Meanwhile Narcissus hunted in the woods tending only to himself, untill one day he discovered a hidden pool of water. The pool had a silvery smooth surface. Only the sun dance upon the still pond.
Narcissus lay on his stomach , leaned over the water. But when he looked at the water, he saw someone staring back at him. Narcissus was spellbound. Gazing up at him from the pool were eyes like twin stars, framed by hair as golden as Apollo’s and cheeks as smooth as ivory.
When he reached out and tried to embrace this vision of beauty, he found no one there. “what love could be more cruel than this?” he cried. “When my lips kiss the beloved, they touch only water! When I reach for my beloved, i hold only water!”
Narcissus began to weep. When he wiped away his tears, the person in the water also wiped away tears. Narcissus saw the truth that time. He yearned for his own reflection. In love with his own reflection.
Day after day , Narcissus stared at the water. He began to waste away from grief, until one sad morning, he felt himself dying from sadness, understood why all was falling in love with him. “Good bye my love” he shouted to his reflection.
“Good bye my love” Echo cried to Narcissus from her cave deep in the woods. Narcissus took his last breath.
After he died , the water nymphs and wood nymphs searched for his body. But all they found was a magnificently beautiful flower the hidden pool. Had white petals and a yellow center.
Echo , desolate after Narcissus’s death, did not eat or sleep. All her beauty faded away and she became very thin untill her voice was all that left. Thereafter , the lonely voice of Echo was heard in the mountains, repeating the last words anyone said.

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