Tragic Story Behind the Words “Narcissist” and “Echo”

• Echo watches Narcissus pine away by the pool

Long ago, according to Greek mythology, there lived a young man of extraordinary beauty named Narcissus.

He was so handsome that young women and men fell in love with him. But Narcissus had little interest in any of them. He rejected his admirers and carried on with his life.

Among those who fell hopelessly in love with him was a mountain nymph named Echo.

Echo had a problem.

She had once been extremely talkative. Whenever the queen of the gods, Hera, was close to catching her husband Zeus with other nymphs, Echo would engage Hera in endless chitchat, giving the nymphs enough time to escape.

Eventually, Hera discovered the trick and punished her. Her punishment? Echo would no longer be able to begin a conversation. She could only repeat the final words spoken by somebody else.

Then one day, Echo saw Narcissus hunting in the woods.

She was immediately captivated by him. She followed him secretly, longing to speak to him but unable to say anything until he spoke first.

Narcissus became separated from his companions and called out.

“Is anyone here?”

“Here!” Echo responded by repeating his last word.

Surprised, Narcissus looked around but saw nobody.

“Come!” he said.

“Come!” answered the mysterious voice.

The strange exchange continued until Narcissus called for them to meet.

At last! Those were words Echo could use.

She repeated them and rushed from her hiding place, ready to throw her arms around the man she loved.

Narcissus recoiled and rejected her.

Humiliated and heartbroken, Echo fled into the woods and hid herself away. Her grief consumed her until her body wasted away. Eventually, according to the myth, nothing remained of Echo except her voice.

But Narcissus had rejected many others too.

One young man he had scorned finally raised his hands towards the gods and prayed that Narcissus should also fall in love and never be able to possess the person he loved. Nemesis, the goddess of retribution, heard his prayer.

One day, tired and thirsty after hunting, Narcissus stopped beside a clear, undisturbed pool of water. He bent down to drink.

And there he saw the most beautiful face he had ever seen.

Narcissus was transfixed.

He smiled.

The beautiful stranger smiled back.

He reached towards him.

The stranger reached towards him.

But whenever Narcissus tried to touch him, the image disappeared into the disturbed water.

He waited.

The water became still.

The beautiful face returned.

Narcissus could not leave.

Then came the terrible discovery. The person Narcissus had fallen desperately in love with was himself: his reflection. He was now suffering exactly what he had made others suffer: the agony of loving someone he could never possess.

Narcissus remained beside the pool, staring at his own reflection and consumed by his impossible love. Gradually, his strength disappeared. He eventually died.

Not far from him hid Echo. She watched the man who had rejected her waste away. When Narcissus cried out in grief, Echo returned his words. And when he finally said farewell to the image in the water, Echo answered with her own farewell.

When others came to prepare Narcissus’s body for burial, the body was gone.

In its place was a flower: the narcissus (also known as the daffodil).

• A field of daffodils – the daffodil is also called the narcissus

Centuries passed, but the beautiful young man who became obsessed with himself was not forgotten. Eventually, his name gave us narcissism: excessive preoccupation with or admiration of oneself. And from it came narcissist and narcissistic.

And Echo?

Her name remains with us too.

Stand in a valley, cave or another suitable place and shout:

“Hello!”

A voice may answer: “Hello!”

But nobody is there.

The Greek word ēkhō was associated with sound and was personified in mythology as the unfortunate nymph condemned to return the words of others.

So Narcissus and Echo have travelled together for centuries: one forever associated with the person who cannot stop admiring himself or herself; the other with the voice that can only answer yours.

And once you know their story, narcissist and echo become very difficult words to forget.