InGreek mythology,Narcissus (/nɑːrˈsɪsəs/;Ancient Greek:Νάρκισσος,romanized: Nárkissos) is a hunter fromThespiae inBoeotia (alternativelyMimas or modern-dayKaraburun,İzmir), known for his beauty which was noticed by all. According to the best-known version of the story inOvid'sMetamorphoses, Narcissus rejected the advances of all women and men who approached him, instead falling in love with his own reflection in a pool of water.[1] In some versions, he beat his breast purple in agony at being kept apart from this reflected love, and in his place sprouteda flower bearing his name.
Several versions of the myth have survived from ancient sources, one from Pausanias, the Greek traveler and geographer of the second century AD, and a more popular one from Ovid, published before 8 AD, found in Book 3 of hisMetamorphoses. This is the story ofEcho and Narcissus. In Ovid's narrative, the framing revolves around a test of the prophetic abilities ofTiresias, an individual who has experienced life as both a man and a woman. His sight was taken from him during a dispute betweenJuno andJove; siding with Jove led to his blinding by an enraged Juno. In compensation for his lost sight, Jove granted him the gift of prophecy. The prophecy that solidified Tiresias's reputation is the tale ofEcho and Narcissus.
After being "ravaged" by the river godCephissus, the nymph Liriope gave birth to Narcissus, who was "beautiful even as a child." As was the custom, she consulted the seer Tiresias about the boy's future, who predicted that the boy would live a long life only if he never "came to know himself". During his 16th year, after getting lost while hunting with friends, Narcissus came to be followed by a nymph, Echo.
Echo was anOread (mountain nymph) and, like Tiresias, had a sensory ability altered after an argument between Juno and Jove. Echo had kept Juno occupied with gossip while Jove had an affair behind her back. In another similar version by Ovid, Echo kept the goddess Juno occupied with stories while Zeus's lovers escaped Mount Olympus.[5] As a punishment, Juno took from Echo her agency in speech; Echo was thereafter never able to speak unless it was to repeat the last few words of those she heard.[6] Echo had deceived using gossip; she would be condemned to be only that from then on.
Meanwhile, Echo spied Narcissus, separated from his hunting friends, and she became immediately infatuated, following him, waiting for him to speak so her feelings might be heard. Narcissus sensed he was being followed and shouted "Who's there?" Echo repeated, "Who's there?" While this interaction continued, Echo came close enough so that she was revealed, and attempted to embrace him.[7] Horrified, he stepped back and told her to "keep her chains". Heartbroken, Echo wasted away, losing her body amidst lonely glens, until nothing of her but her chaste verbal ability remained.
Nemesis, the goddess of revenge, heard the pleas of a young man,Ameinias, who had fallen for Narcissus but was ignored and cursed him; Nemesis listened, proclaiming that Narcissus would never be able to be loved by the one he fell in love with.
After spurning Echo and the young man, Narcissus became thirsty. He found a pool of water which, in Ovid's account, no animal had ever approached. Leaning down to drink, Narcissus sees his reflection, which he finds as beautiful as a marble statue. Not realizing it was his own reflection, Narcissus fell deeply in love with it. Thus both Tiresias's prophecy and Nemesis' curse came true in the same instance.[8][a][b]Unable to leave the allure of this image, Narcissus eventually realized that his love could not be reciprocated and he melted away from the fire of passion burning inside him, eventually turning into a gold and white flower.[9][10]
Ovid was probably influenced by an earlier version ascribed to the captive Greek poetParthenius of Nicaea, composed around 50 BC and rediscovered in 2004 by Dr Benjamin Henry among theOxyrhynchus papyri atOxford.[11][12] This version is very concise and makes no mention of Echo.[11]
He had a cruel heart, and hated all of them, till he conceived a love for his own form: He wailed, seeing his face, delightful as a dream, within a spring; he wept for his beauty. Then the boy shed his blood and gave it to the earth... to bear.
A version of the myth byConon, a contemporary of Ovid, has an even bloodier ending (Narrations, 24), relating how a young man named Ameinias fell in love with Narcissus, who had already spurned his suitors, all of whom were male.[11] Although Ameinias was very persistent, Narcissus spurned him too and gave him a sword, which Ameinias used to kill himself at Narcissus's doorstep after praying to the gods to teach Narcissus a lesson for all the pain he provoked. Narcissus walked by a pool of water and decided to drink some. He saw his reflection, became entranced by it, his first and only love, and killed himself because he could not have his object of desire. Because of this tragedy, theThespians came to honor and reverenceEros especially among the gods.[13][9]
A century later the travel writerPausanias recorded a novel variant of the story, in which Narcissus falls in love with his twin sister rather than himself.[14][15]
In all versions, his body disappears and all that is left is anarcissus flower.
Narcissus at the Spring byJan Roos depicts Narcissus gazing at his own reflection.
Miyawaki outlines several major ancient versions of the Narcissus myth, each emphasizing different themes. In Ovid’s account, the myth centers on illusion, self-recognition, and the tragedy of unfulfilled desire. Conon’s version includes the rejected suitor Ameinias and frames the story as a moralized tale about cruelty and punishment. Pausanias presents a more psychologically grounded narrative in which Narcissus mourns his deceased twin sister, interpreting the story as an expression of grief rather than self-love.[16]
Modern psychoanalytic scholarship has challenged Freud’s reading of the myth. Javanbakht argues that Narcissus exhibits a conflicted pattern of withdrawal and longing more consistent with schizoid–histrionic dynamics than narcissistic personality disorder. He also notes that Narcissus initially fails to recognize the reflection and that his fixation is a punishment imposed by Nemesis, not an inherent trait.[17]
The myth had a decided influence on EnglishVictorianhomoerotic culture, viaAndré Gide's study of the myth,Le Traité du Narcisse ('The Treatise of the Narcissus', 1891).Oscar Wilde also used the myth within his works. One of his poems from 1894,The Disciple[18],continues the story of Narcissus after his death,
`We do not wonder that you should mourn in this manner for Narcissus, so beautiful was he.'
`But was Narcissus beautiful?' said the pool.
— The Oreads and the pool Narcissus gazed in, in Oscar Wilde, The Disciple, Poems in Prose
Before this Wilde publishedThe Picture of Dorian Gray in 1890, and used Narcissus as an example of beauty multiple times. In Chapter 1, Lord Henry used the myth to describe the beauty of the man Basil (the protagonist) had painted. Basil explained to Lord Henry he did not want to part with his work because he had put much of himself into it.[19]
...and this young Adonis, who looks as if he was made out of ivory and rose-leaves. Why, my dear Basil, he is a Narcissus, and you—well...
— Lord Henry, in Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1
Paulo Coelho'sThe Alchemist also starts with a story about Narcissus, found (we are told) by the alchemist in a book brought by someone in the caravan. The alchemist's (and Coelho's) source was very probablyHesketh Pearson'sThe Life of Oscar Wilde (1946) in which this story is recorded (Penguin edition, p. 217) as one of Wilde's inspired inventions. This version of the Narcissus story is based on Wilde's "The Disciple" from his "Poems in Prose (Wilde) ".
Seamus Heaney references Narcissus in his poem "Personal Helicon"[20] from his first collection "Death of a Naturalist":
To stare, big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring Is beneath all adult dignity.
Petrarchan poetry, often in the form of aPetrarchan sonnet, has been profoundly impacted by the myth of Narcissus. Most notably, Petrarch's Sonnet 45 contains themes and motifs inspired by the myth of Narcissus when the love interest, Laura, loves her reflection more than the narrator.[21]
^Narcissus is in danger when he sees the image but not, because of that, lost. He is lost when he recognizes himself in the image. It is not until then that death becomes the only possible solution. Narcissus dies when he loses the illusion but cannot escape from the feeling that it has aroused; he dies when there is no hope left that the passion can be satisfied. —Vinge (1967a)[8]
^Finally, Narcissus realises that he has an insoluble problem and gives it a concise formulation: [Ovid writes]"Quod cupio, mecum est: Inopem me copia fecit."
[Translation: "What I desire is with me: Abundance made me destitute."]
At this point [continues Vinge] Schickel makes an important comment: "Er durchschaut wen er im Wasser vor sich hat; weder liebt er sein Spiegelbild, wie ein Leser dem andern nachirrt, noch treibt er 'Narzissmus,' wie man seit Freud missversteht."
[Translation: "He sees through who he has in front of him in the water; he neither loves his reflection, like one reader follows another, nor does he practice 'narcissism', as has been misunderstood since Freud"]49.
^"ToposText".topostext.org. Archived fromthe original on 22 March 2019. Retrieved15 November 2019.
^"ToposText".topostext.org. Retrieved1 August 2025.
^Jacoby, Mario (1991).Individuation and Narcissism: The psychology of self in Jung and Kohut (1st ed.). Routledge.ISBN978-0415064644.
^Miyawaki, Edison. “Narcissus.” InWhat to Read on Love, Not Sex: Freud, Fiction, and the Articulation of Truth in Modern Psychological Science, University of California Health Humanities Press, 2012, 65–83.
^Javanbakht, Arash. “Was the Myth of Narcissus Misinterpreted by Freud? Narcissus, a Model for Schizoid–Histrionic, Not Narcissistic, Personality Disorder.”American Journal of Psychoanalysis 66, no. 1 (2006): 63–79.
^Wilde, Oscar (1891)."The Picture of Dorian Gray".Wikisource (Full free text available.) (1st ed.). Q69637774.Archived from the original on 12 February 2025. Retrieved4 August 2025.
^Cf. Ibiblio, Internet Poetry Archive: Text of the Poem Personal Helicon
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