Author: Amethyst💜
Once upon a time, there lived a talkative "nymph" or shall I say Echo. The goddess Venus admires Echo for her magnificent voice and song. One day Echo commits an offence against Juno who in return curses her by making her unable to initiate a spoken sentence on her own. So Echo couldn't speak on her own except someone spoke to her first. She could only repeat the last words stated by someone else. "Yet a chatterbox, had no other use of speech than she has now, that she could repeat only the last words out of many."
After Echo was cursed, she went into the forest. There, she met Narcissus and immediately fell in love with him. However, she couldn't speak to him. She followed him quietly and waited for him to speak so that he could hear her voice as she repeated his last words. The more she looked at the young man, the more she longed for him. Though she wished with all her heart to call out to Narcissus, Juno's curse prevented her.
During the hunt, Narcissus became separated from his companions and called out, "Is anyone there' and heard the Echo repeat his words. Startled, Narcissus answered the voice, "Come here". Echo repeated his voice. Finally, she came out to meet Narcissus and he harshly rejected her. In despair, Echo left feeling dejected. Her fellow nymphs prayed to Nemesis to punish Narcissus with a love that was equally not reciprocated.
One day Narcissus went to drink water by the pool and saw his reflection in the river. Nemesis causes him to fall in love with his reflection in a pool of water and a tiny ripple will make him so afraid thinking that the boy he was starting at will disappear. He wasted away and died, unable to take his eyes away from the beautiful youth he did not recognize as himself. Narcissus, looking one last time into the pool uttered, "Oh marvellous boy, I loved you in vain, farewell"
Eventually, Echo, too, began to waste away. Though she was immortal, her body faded and her bones turned to stone until all that remained of Echo was the sound of her voice.
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The tale of Echo and Narcissus is not necessarily a story with a moral as much as it’s a representation of certain conditions of human behaviour. The foundation for modern terminology of narcissism and echoism comes from this tale.
According to Josiah Teng, a mental health clinician from New York City, “The tale highlights the natural consequences of narcissism and echoism and how living thinly, that is, living within only one dimension of your full identity, will lead to obsession and withering."
Both Echo and Narcissus suffered as a result of their fixation which showed that both extremes can have evident consequences.
The fundamental self-obsession aspect of the Narcissus myth remains true in narcissism today. As a personality trait, narcissism is self-importance and self-absorption that can occur on a spectrum, with extremely high narcissism potentially indicating narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).
Also, Echo's unrequited love for Narcissus is linked with Echoism or codependency. However, Echoism isn't considered a mental disorder. It is rather understood as a learned behaviour that can orient you toward having one-sided, unfulfilling relationships where you give emotionally and physically — often at your expense and with almost nothing in return — to feel appreciated and cared for.
In the Tale of Echo and Narcissus, the tragic end points to the fact that the extreme of both sides is extremely detrimental to the individual's life.
Now,🏂
Do you think you are moving towards the extreme?
Let's do a quick check, shall we?🧘♀️
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