What was the ancient myth of Narcissus?

In Greek Mythology, Narcissus is a youth who pined away in love for his own image in a pool of water and was transformed into the flower that bears his name.

What was the ancient myth of Narcissus?
The story is of Narcissus and Echo. Echo could speak to Narcissus directly. She could only echo what he thought and said. When he looked at his reflection he would only see himself. Echo would speak to him through his reflection. She told him of her love, but Narcissus perceived that this love was from himself. He tried to kiss his own reflection in the water and fell in and drowned.
Reply:Echo was punished by Juno for covering up an affair Jupiter was having. Juno cursed her to only repeat the words she heard. She could not start a conversation. Echo fell in love with Narcissus, but every time he tried to talk to her, all she do is say the same thing back to him that he had said to her. In anger, he spurned her. She pined away in a cave until nothing was left but her voice (That's why we have an echo). In punishment for his cruelty, Narcissus was cursed by the gods to fall in love with his own reflection. He fell in and drowned. When his funeral pyre had cooled, a new type of flower was discovered under the ashes: the Narcissus





You will read, or hear, MANY different versions of his story. The problem is that they are all correct. Mythology was word of mouth for centuries. The stories were started and changed countless times. Don't worry about which story is right or not. Which one do you like best? That how the Masters decided which version to print.
Reply:In Greek mythology, Narcissus or Narkissos (Greek Νάρκισσος), was a hero of the territory of Thespiae in Boeotia who was renowned for his beauty and his pride. Several versions of his myth have survived: Ovid's, from his Metamorphoses; Pausanias', from his Guide to Greece, (9.31.7); and one found among the Oxyrhynchus papyri.





Pausanias locates the spring of Narcissus at Donacon 'Reed-bed' in the territory of the Thespians. Pausanias finds it incredible that someone could not distinguish a reflection from a real person, and cites a less known variant in which Narcissus had a twin sister. Both dressed the same and wore the same kind of clothes and hunted together. Narcissus fell in love with her. When she died, Narcissus pined after her and pretended that the reflection he saw in the water was his sister.





As Pausanias also notes, yet another tale is that the narcissus flower was created to entice Demeter's daughter Core away from her companions to enable Hades to abduct her.
Reply:Narcissus was a greeek hero who was famous for his physique. He was, however, extremely self-obsessed and vain, and was fascinated by his good looks. One of the many women who ere in love with him was Echo, a water nymph who had once offended the goddess Hera and was cursed for eternity into not being able to form sentences of her own, but being doomed into repeating the words of others.





One day, Narcissus comes down to the waterside, and spots his reflection in the clear water, and falls in love with himself. Echo, who is the nymph of that particular body of water, sees Narcissus, and standing behind him, tries to open up to him, but being cursed by Hera, she cannot say anything. Narcissus, unaware of her presence, being to talk to his reflection, and Echo ends up repeating whatever he says, hoping that he will notice her. But Narcissus is so taken with himself that he does not notice her at all. Finally, Narcissus looks deep into the water and his relfection, and says, "I love you". Echo, now completely ecstatic, loudly repeats "I love you". Narcissus, thing that the sound came from his reflection, makes a grap for it, but falls into the water and drowns, leaving Echo horrified and heartbroken. To preserve his memory, Echo (or some God), transforms Narcissus' body into a flower, the Narcissus flower.





So, today, anyone who has excessive love or admiration of oneself, is self-preoccupied and vain is said to be a narcissist, or suffer from narcissism.





Plus, the narcissus is a beautiful water plant.





Similarly, repetitive sounds are called echoes.
Reply:Narcissus is another example among several of a beautiful young man who spurned sex and died as a result. As such, his myth has much in common with those of Adonis and Hippolytus. In the Roman poet Ovid's retelling of the myth, Narcissus is the son of the river god Cephissus and the nymph Liriope. Tiresias, the seer, told his parents that the child "would live to an old age if it did not look at itself." Many nymphs and girls fell in love with him but he rejected them. One of these nymphs, Echo, was so distraught over this rejection that she withdrew into a lonely spot and faded until all that was left was a plaintive whisper. The goddess Nemesis heard the rejected girls prayers for vengeance and arranged for Narcissus to fall in love with his own reflection. He stayed watching his reflection and let himself die. It is quite possible, however, that the connection between Echo and Narcissus was entirely Ovid's own invention, for there is no earlier witness to it.


An important and earlier variation of this tale originates in the region in Greek known as Boeotia (to the north and west of Athens). Narcissus lived in the city of Thespiae. A young man, Ameinias, was in love with Narcissus, but he rejected Ameinias' love. He grew tired of Ameinias' affections and sent him a present of a sword. Ameinias killed himself with the sword in front of Narcissus' door and as he died, he called curses upon Narcissus. One day Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection in a spring and, in desperation, killed himself. Both of these stories give an origin to the narcissus flower, which grew where Narcissus died.