Male_Divine_Article

Male Divine Article The story of Narcissus and Echo a Greek Myth was an interesting tale of a beautiful boy born to a nymph known as Liriope. When he was born an oracle told his mother that the boy, whom she had named Narcissus, would live a long time, maybe forever if he never saw his reflection. At first Liriope worried constantly about her child’s welfare but as time passed she forgot the words of the oracle and just enjoyed watching her beautiful son grow. Narcissus was an adventurous boy, who loved to explore the woods, fields, climb trees, and hills. He was a child who enjoyed being alone to the point of being saw by his peers as ruthless and snobbish. Near Narcissus’ home lived Echo, who at one-time was a handmaiden to the Goddess Juno. Echo loved to tell untrue tales and stories about the nymphs, Gods, and Goddesses and because of this bad behavior was an outsider. When Juno found that Echo was telling tall tales about all the nymphs, Gods and Goddesses she commanded, "Go live in the wild woods, Echo. Take your poisonous tongue away, and as your punishment, from this day forward you will have no voice. The only words you ever will utter are words others have spoken first” (Friedman, 2004). From that day forward, Echo roamed about in the woods playing games with those who passed her way by whispering the words they spoke aloud and then hiding so the speaker would not see her. One-day as Narcissus was walking in the woods he crossed Echo’s path. When she heard his footsteps she hid behind a tree. When she saw how beautiful he was, she fell instantly and completely in love with him. She quietly came out of hiding and followed him. She wanted so badly to tell him of her love but the words would not come out of her mouth. When she stepped on a twig the sound alerted Narcissus of her presence, so she hid. Upon finding no one there he quickly asked, “Is someone here” (Friedman, 2004)' All Echo could do was repeat the words that he spoke and this made Narcissus angry. Seeing his ire Echo hastened from her hiding spot and tried to fling her arms around him, but he was so in love with himself that he couldn’t love another so he told her, “Go away!" he cried. "I would die before I love thee" (Friedman, 2004)! Once again she repeated what he said and fell to the ground weeping in despair for her heart was torn into. Narcissus ran from the sound of her words until he arrived at a stream with clear water that was like glass. He lay down on the bank and leaned over to take a drink, but paused when he saw his reflection. At first he thought it was someone who lived in the stream and quickly became enamored with the beautiful creature that he saw. He tried on several occasions to kiss the creature in the stream, but to no avail. Each time he would move close, the image would disappear this caused him such pain and at once he related to how he had made Echo feel. Dejected and alone he started to weep and dissipate in grief. When he was taking his final breath, he cried in a loud voice, “farewell,” when Echo heard this she repeated the word too and died leaving her voice behind to live in quiet places to this day repeating words spoken aloud. Liriope hearing of her son’s death came to claim his body, but all she found was a bunch of flowers with silvery green leaves and golden petals. From that day forward these flowers were known as Narcissus.