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In [[Greek mythology]], '''Narcissus''' or '''Narkissos''' ([[Greek language|Greek]] '''Νάρκισσος'''), was a hero of the territory of [[Thespiae]] in [[Boeotia]] who was renowned for his beauty and his pride. Several versions of his [[myth ]] have survived: [[Ovid]]'s, from his ''[[Metamorphoses (poem)|Metamorphoses]];'' [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]]', from his ''[[Guide ]] to [[Greece]],'' (9.31.7); and one found among the [[Oxyrhynchus]] [[papyri]].

Pausanias locates the spring of Narcissus at Donacon 'Reed-bed' in the territory of the Thespians. Pausanias finds it incredible that someone could not distinguish a [[reflection ]] from a [[real ]] person, and cites a less known variant in which Narcissus had a twin sister. Both dressed the same and wore the same kind of clothes and hunted together. Narcissus fell in [[love ]] with her. When she died, Narcissus pined after her and pretended that the reflection he saw in the water was his sister.

As Pausanias also [[notes]], yet [[another ]] tale is that the narcissus flower was created to entice [[Demeter]]'s daughter [[Persephone|Core]] away from her companions to enable [[Hades]] to abduct her.

In Ovid's Metamorphoses, he tells the story of a graceful and pretty nymph named [[Echo (mythology)|Echo]] who loved Narcissus in vain. Narcissus's beauty was so unmatched that he felt it to be godlike in scope, comparing it with that of Bacchus and Apollo. He spurned Echo's affections until, despairing, she faded away to [[nothing ]] but a faint, plaintive whisper. To teach the vain boy a lesson, the goddess Nemesis doomed Narcissus to fall in love with his own reflection in Echo's pond. Entranced by his own beauty and enamoured with his own [[image]], Narcissus lay on the bank of the river and wasted away staring down into the water.

This, a more archaic version than the one related by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, is a [[moral ]] tale in which the proud and unfeeling Narcissus is punished by the gods for having spurned all his [[male ]] suitors. It is [[thought ]] to have been meant as a cautionary tale addressed to adolescent boys. Until recently, the only source for this version was a segment in [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] (9.31.7), [[about ]] 150 years after Ovid. However, a very similar account was discovered among the [[Oxyrhynchus|Oxyrhynchus papyri]] in [[2004]], an account that predates Ovid's version by at least fifty years.

In this story, [[Ameinias]], a young man, loved Narcissus but was scorned. To tell Ameinias off, Narcissus gave him a [[sword]] as a [[present]]. Ameinias used the sword to kill himself on Narcissus' doorstep and prayed to [[Nemesis (mythology)|Nemesis]] that Narcissus would one day [[know ]] the [[pain ]] of unrequited love. This curse was fulfilled when Narcissus became entranced by his reflection in the pool and tried to [[seduce ]] the beautiful boy, not realizing it was himself he was [[looking ]] at. Completing the symmetry of the tale, Narcissus takes his sword and kills himself from sorrow.[http://www.androphile.org/preview/Library/Mythology/Greek/Narcissus/narcissus.htm]

[[Narcissism]] is named after Narcissus, and both derive from the Greek [[word ]] ''narke'' "numb" from which we also get the word ''[[narcotic]]''. Thus for the [[Greeks ]] Narcissus stood for [[vanity]], callousness and insensitivity, as he was emotionally numb to the entreaties of those who fell in love with his beauty.

The parable of Narcissus has been a rich vein for artists to mine for at least two thousand years, beginning with the [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] [[poet]] [[Ovid]] (book III of ''[[Metamorphoses (poem)|Metamorphoses]]''). This was followed in more [[recent ]] centuries by [[other ]] poets ([[John Keats|Keats]]), and painters ([[Michelangelo Merisi|Caravaggio]], [[Nicolas Poussin|Poussin]], [[J.M.W. Turner|Turner]], [[Salvador Dalí|Dalí]], and [[John William Waterhouse|Waterhouse]]). In [[Stendhal]]'s novel ''Le Rouge et le Noir'' ([[1830]]), there is a classic narcissist in the [[character ]] of [[Mathilde]]. Says Prince Korasoff to Julien Sorel, the protagonist, with respect to his [[beloved]]:

During the two or [[three ]] little outbursts of [[passion ]] she has allowedherself in your favor, she has, by a great effort of [[imagination]], seen inyou the hero of her [[dreams]], and not yourself as you really are.

The myth had a decided influence of [[English ]] Victorian [[homoeroticism|homoerotic]] [[culture]], via the influence of [[Andre Gide]]'s study of the myth ''Traite du Narcisse'' ('The Treatise of the Narcissus', 1891), and the influence of [[Oscar Wilde]]. Also, many characters in [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]]'s (19th-Century Russian Writer) writings are lonely Narcissus-types, such as Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin in [["The Double"]](Published 1846).

The [[Narcissus (flower)|Narcissus flower]] blooms early in the spring and is often found in damp soil near to a pond. It is a [[self]]-sufficient, fertile but stagnant [[environment]]. The flower is usually of six white vesica-shaped radiating petals with a central yellow funnel containing the stamen and the stigma. The stem bends just before the blossom, tilting it so the blossom faces out or down rather than up. According to myth, this is because Narcissus was gazing down at his reflection when he was transformed into the flower. The stalk is otherwise firm and upright. In [[Islam]] the Hadith of Bukhari associates the flower with the upright and righteous man. The [[symbol ]] has also been likened to the transformation of vanity and self-centeredness into the humility of a more individuated and spiritual self.

* Louise Vinge. (1967). ''The Narcissus Theme in Western [[Literature ]] up to the Nineteenth Century''. (The classic in-depth study).

|'''[[Bibliography ]] of reconstruction:''' [[Ovid]], Metamorphoses III.340 - 350, 415 - 510 (AD 8); [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece'' 9.31.7 (AD 143–176)