Divine Dysfunction

The world of Greek mythology is filled with danger, love, adventure—and lots of family dysfunction. There’s a good reason the stories are still being told today: Greek myths are endlessly entertaining. Gods, goddesses, creatures great and small, and mere mortals join together in dramatic, fascinating, hilarious, and often violent tales of nature and humanity’s flaws and foibles. 

 

Though they often had otherworldly powers, ancient Greek gods and goddesses were very…human. They got jealous and angry; they were vengeful and manipulative; they were always making mistakes and doing things they were told not to do. And sometimes their own personality traits led to their downfall, like Echo and Narcissus. 

 

Echo was a mountain nymph who spent a good deal of her time talking. Zeus enjoyed spending time with the nymphs of Mount Cithaeron, and those nymphs equally enjoyed Zeus’s presence with them. But they were all aware of Hera’s tendency toward checking in on her husband and punishing those he associated with. This was where Echo came in: When Zeus was off with her friends, Echo would take it upon herself to distract Hera. Echo would chat and chat, keeping Hera busy and giving Zeus and the nymphs the opportunity to extricate themselves from whatever situation they may have been in before Hera could find them. Eventually, Hera found out what Echo was up to and punished her by making it so that Echo could only ever repeat what had just been said to her. She couldn’t speak without someone else having spoken first, and she couldn’t keep silent if someone said something around her.  

 

While cursed this way, Echo came upon the young man Narcissus, the son of a river god and a nymph. Narcissus was beautiful and handsome…and he knew it. It was well known that the man was too consumed with his own beauty to find attraction in others. Echo found herself very attracted to Narcissus (most people were) but wasn’t able to call out to him. Fortunately, he called out to his friends at that moment, asking, “Anyone here?” Echo, because of her curse, was only able to repeat the last word he spoke, “Here!” His calls and her responses continued, with Narcissus trying to determine who was actually there. Eventually the one-sided conversation allowed Echo to reveal herself to Narcissus. He asked whoever was there to join him, and Echo responded the same. She ran up to Narcissus, taking his face in her hands. Narcissus was shocked and not at all receptive to Echo’s advances. He pushed her off him, forcefully telling her to go away. 

 

Embarrassed and hurt, Echo ran from Narcissus and ended up in a nearby cave. There she stayed, her obsession with the man she’d seen from afar only growing as she withered and eventually died. 

 

Narcissus found himself equally cursed. He was unable to love anyone but himself. In time, he found himself looking into a pool. Narcissus immediately fell in love with the man staring back at him from the pool—i.e., his own reflection. He stared at his reflection, transfixed and unable to move, for so long that he, too, withered and died. In the place where he died, there was no body for his family to mourn; instead, there grew small yellow and gold flowers.