Narcissus In Greek Mythology

In Greek mythology, Narcissus was the son of the nymph Liriope and the water god Cephissus. He was always looked upon for his unimaginable beauty. The blind seer Tiresias told his mother, Liriope, that he would live a long and healthy life! Of course, with one catch. He could never recognize himself. Because of his beauty many people fell in love with him. But Narcissus would never love anyone else back. He would just entertain them and then drive them off. In his eyes, nobody was worthy of him.

But one wood nymph, Echo seemed to love him more than anybody else. The only thing that could come close to her love for him, was her love for talking. Echo always had to have the last word. One day when she escaped the goddess Juno’s husband, she managed to make a conversation with Juno herself. When Juno noticed how Echo always had to have the last word. She put a curse on Echo, that removed her voice with the exception that she can only say the last word spoken to her.

Echo would always wait in the woods, and hope that maybe this time Narcissus would notice her.

And one day while she was pacing in the bushes, Narcissus heard her and yelled out “Who’s here?” To which Echo replied “Here!” because of her curse, this is all she could say.

Narcissus then yelled out “Come!” Echo of course replied with “Come!” And then Narcissus called one last time, “Why do you shun me?... Let us join one

another.”
Echo was so filled with joy for the fact that Narcissus had called for her that she ran out and threw herself on him.
This made Narcissus furious. He yelled out “I would rather die than you should have me!” and threw her to the ground. Echo left the woods crying, her heart broken. She ran off into the mountains where she eventually died of grief. Her body became one with the mountain stone. All that was left was her voice which responded nicely when others spoke in the mountains.
Narcissus would continue doing what he does best by toying with the hearts of nymph after nymph. Like anybody would the gods grew tired of his actions. They decided to give him a taste of his own medicine, and show him what it feels like to love one who will never love you back.
One day while Narcissus was walking in the woods he walked upon a pool of water. When he looked into it, he saw a beautiful water spirit. So he thought. It actually ended up being his own reflection, of course he did not recognize his own reflection.
He fell in love ,literally, with himself. He didn’t know that it wasn’t a real person. As the reflection mimicked his every move and disappeared temporarily when he tried to touch it, he grew more and more furious. He cried, he starved himself, he didn’t even move,
and he eventually died.
This story shows much importance to the fact that you can’t be self centered like Narcissus was, everyone’s human and has their own faults. If you do become narcissistic then you won’t get far in life!