Echo and Narcissus

このストーリーについて

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.

読み聞かせのコツ

• 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?

よくある質問

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.