Greek myth · 声匠改编 · 3:56
Echo and Narcissus
Echo can only repeat what others say. Proud Narcissus loves no one, until he sees a face in a still forest pool. Ovid's tale of a voice and a flower.
Narrator
Echo
Hera
Liriope
Tiresias
Narcissus
NemesisOther languages · 2 languages
About this story
Echo and Narcissus comes from the Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 3, finished around AD 8. Ovid weaves two stories together: Echo, the chattering nymph punished so that she can only repeat the last words she hears, and Narcissus, the proud youth who falls in love with his own reflection. He calls the queen of the gods Juno; this version uses her Greek name, Hera. It keeps Tiresias's riddle, the echo conversation in the forest, Nemesis answering the prayer and the white-and-gold flower, and tells both fadings gently.
What it teaches
Pride and unkindness come back to you, and someone who loves only himself ends up alone. The story also shows how much it hurts to be ignored, and why listening to others matters.
Suits
Ages 6–12
Tips for telling it
- Let your child be Echo: you read Narcissus's lines and they repeat only the last few words.
- Look into a still bowl of water together and talk about the difference between a reflection and a real friend.
- Ask: what could Narcissus have said to Echo instead?
Questions people ask
- What is the moral of Echo and Narcissus?
- Vanity and cruelty have consequences: Narcissus scorns everyone who loves him and is punished by loving someone who can never love him back, his own reflection. Echo's story adds that it is painful to have no voice of your own and not be listened to.
- Why could Echo only repeat what others said?
- In Ovid, Echo used to keep Juno, the Greeks' Hera, busy with long chatter so that the nymphs who had been with Jupiter could slip away. When Juno realised, she took away Echo's power to speak first, leaving her only the last words of others.
- Where does the word narcissism come from?
- From Narcissus, who fell in love with his own reflection. Doctors borrowed his name around 1900 for excessive self-love, and today narcissism means being wrapped up in yourself and your own image. The narcissus flower, which Ovid says grew where he lay, shares his name.
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