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megastir
Mega means big or large
stir because I like to mix it up
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Tuesday, February 11, 2003 :::
This is the story of Echo and Narcissus. .
The story begins with Echo and Zeus. They were making love believing that all was well. But Hera Zues's wife was not happy. She had followed Zeus, expecting this kind of behavior out of him. She came down to Earth to apprehend her husband, but Zeus, being godly, sensed her coming. He instructed Echo to keep Hera busy until he could get away.
Echo did just that. Hera confronted her with the affair, but Echo created a long and very untrue story for Hera, giving her lover enough time to escape. Now, Rhea (Hera's mom) didn't raise a fool. She knew she had been tricked, and by a nymph at that! She turned on Echo and declared:
"That tongue of yours, by which I have been tricked, shall have its power curtailed and enjoy the briefest use of speech."
Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.365
From that moment on the talkative Echo could barely use her voice, and could only repeat the words that those around her said. She was lonely, and couldn't really talk to other nymphs because of her condition, and secluded herself deep in the woods.
One day, a very handsome young man came along. His name was Narcissus. Echo fell in love with him at once. Echo wanted to call out, "Wait! I love you!" But her voice was frozen in her throat by Hera's curse. The young man went deeper and deeper into the forest, until he came upon a calm stream. He was thirsty and so he bent over to drink, but as he leaned over he caught sight of his reflection in the water. He was as taken by his beauty as Echo had been, but without her barrier. He immediatly spoke to his reflection, "I love you." Echo, nearby and hearing her chance quickly responded, "love you . . ." But it was too late, Narcissus was too engrossed with himself to notice the nymph. His love was his obsession and would not leave the stream to eat, nor disturb his image to drink and so he died of thirst and hunger and unrequited self-love. Where he had lain a flower grew, the narcissus, the same flower that wooed the innocent Persephone. Poor Echo pined away and died for the same things, but when she died not even her bones remained, some say they were turned to stone. But Gaia preserved Echo's voice, the one thing she had been denied in life, and to this day her voice sounds everywhere.
::: posted by Mega at 5:54 AM
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