NARCISSUS AND ECHO:

The Birth of Narcissus

Narcissus was fathered by Cephisus, who "forcefully ravished" the dark river nymph, Liriope.

Narcissus was so beautiful that, even in his cradle, you could have fallen in love with him.

His family asked a seer whether he would live to a ripe old age. He replied, "Yes, if he does not come to know himself."

At first, it seemed that this reply was innocuous. However, ultimately, according to Ovid, it was proven to be true for two reasons: "the strange madness" that afflicted the boy and the nature of his death.

Sweet Sixteen

At the age of 16, Narcissus could be counted as both a boy and a man.

Both males and females fell in love with him. However, Ovid says that "his soft young body housed a pride so unyielding that none of those boys or girls dared to touch him."

The implications of this assessment are complicated. There are three components:

1. Narcissus was proud or vain.

2. He (or his pride) was unyielding.

3. None of his admirers dared to touch him.

What is unclear is whether he rejected the approaches of his admirers.

Did he not yield to their approaches? Alternatively, did he appear to be so unyielding that they didn't make any approaches? Did none dare to approach him?

The Importance of Gender

It's important to recognise that Narcissus' admirers were of both genders.

He was equally attractive to both.

Equally, he implicitly rejected approaches from both genders, so there is no reason to suspect that his sexuality was resolutely either heterosexual or homosexual or bisexual.

The Arrival of Echo

The narrative accelerates with the entry of Echo.

She is unable to initiate a conversation, but can respond to another's comments, by repeating the last words that she has heard.

She falls in love with Narcissus. When he detects her presence, he says "I would die before I would have you touch me." Echo replies, "I would have you touch me." She is inviting physical contact. He scorns her and she wastes away, almost anorexically, until only her voice is left.

At this point, Ovid mentions that Narcissus has treated her exactly as he has treated both female and male admirers.




"Echo and Narcissus" (1903), by John William Waterhouse


An Admirer Scorned

Now, another of Narcissus' admirers (not Echo) causes him to be cursed:

"May he himself fall in love with another, as we have done with him! May he too be unable to gain his loved one!"

The curse effectively makes his love unattainable.

A Clear Pool with Shining Silvery Waters

In the next scene, we find Narcissus next to a pool in the woods.

As he drinks from the pool, he becomes enchanted with the beautiful reflection that he sees.

He has become "spellbound by his own self". However, at this stage, there is no suggestion that he knows that the image is himself:

"Unwittingly, he desired himself, and was himself the object of his own approval, at once seeking and sought, himself kindling the flame with which he burned."

Unknowingly, Subject and Object had become one.

However, as a result of the curse, the Subject could not attain his Object, himself.

The Shadow of Your Reflection

Ovid warns Narcissus in the text:

"Poor foolish boy, why vainly grasp at the fleeting image that eludes you? The thing you are seeing does not exist; only turn aside and you will lose what you love. What you see is but the shadow cast by your reflection; in itself it is nothing. It comes with you, and lasts while you are there; it will go when you go, if go you can."

However, there is no suggestion that Narcissus hears the warning. Ovid's caveat comes after the event, when he is writing his tale. Narcissus must acquire knowledge of his predicament on his own. He must come to know himself alone.

Narcissus' Love

Narcissus' dilemma is that he can't reach or attain his love:

"I am in love, and see my loved one, but that for which I see and love, I cannot reach; so far am I deluded by my love...Only a little water keeps us apart."

Eventually, he recognises himself and realises the nature of his love:

"Alas! I am myself the boy I see. I know it: my own reflection does not deceive me. I am on fire with love for my own self. It is I who kindle the flames which I must endure."

What is to be done?

"What should I do? Woo or be wooed? But what then shall I seek by my wooing? What I desire, I have..."

He has come to recognise that the Object of the Subject is the Subject itself.

Because he already possesses himself (in fact, he is self-possessed), his desire is futile. He cannot acquire again what he already has.

Separation and Pursuit

His one response is:

"How I wish I could separate myself from my body."

The mind needs to separate from the body, the Subject needs to separate from the Object, so that the one can pursue the other.

This process of separation would make it possible to both desire and acquire. However, again, it is a futile endeavour.

My Ill-Starred Love

Narcissus realises that he can never touch the object of his love, because it is watery and illusory.

As his image recedes in the pool, he pleads:

"Let me look upon you, if I cannot touch you! Let me, by looking, feed my ill-starred love."

Let me gaze, if I cannot touch. Even if the object of my gaze is myself.

He remains trapped in his self-possession.

Woe is Me

Narcissus, absorbed by his own image, remains by the pool and does not eat or drink. Like Echo before him, he wastes away. His last words before he dies are:

"Woe is me for the boy I loved in vain!"

It seems that he has come to "know himself" It's interesting to speculate on the meaning of this phrase in this context. Normally, to "know yourself" would be good advice and might prolong life. Here, knowledge will abbreviate Narcissus' life. I wonder whether the verb "know" is being used in a different sense to knowledge, perhaps something analogous to the "Biblical sense"? Was his problem knowing himself as he might know an Other? Alternatively, is there an implication that the illusion could have continued had he not recognised himself? and therefore, in terms of the prophecy, he would not live a long life.

When they are preparing his funeral pyre, the only evidence of him they can find is "a flower with circle of white petals round a yellow centre", a narcissus.

Love of One's Own Echo

The Narcissus myth has been interpreted as a warning against:

1. self-love; and/or

2. homosexual love.

It's arguable that the reason Narcissus loved in vain, is that he loved in vanity.

If initially he loved another, eventually he loved his own image.

However, in doing so he was deluded, or he deluded himself.

The object of the pursuit needs to be an Other, an Object, not the Subject.

It takes two to make one.

Vanity or excessive pride can be an obstacle in this quest.

Same Sex Attraction

The second issue relates to whether the Object needs to be an Other, someone who is not like you. In other words, someone who is different, someone who is of a different gender.

In a way, the implicit question is whether homosexuality is a quest for another self, a match, a doppelgänger, rather than an opposite or a complement.

If the former, is homosexuality a form of "narcissism"?

I don't think that the original Narcissus myth implies anything about homosexuality.

Initially, Narcissus did not yield to approaches by either gender. There was no differentiation between heterosexuality and homosexuality. They were equally available and appropriate.

It's true that, inevitably, Narcissus saw a male image in the pool, just as a woman would have seen a female image. He also rejected the advances of the female Echo (as he did previously reject the advances of both genders).

However, I don't see the myth as a caveat against same sex attraction and relationships.

Leaving Room for An Other

The real issue seems to be a preoccupation or an obsession with yourself, the obsession of Subject for Subject. This is the "strange madness" that Ovid refers to.

In other words, the myth itself suggests that it is not sufficient for a Subject to be attracted to itself, a Subject needs an Object, regardless of gender.

Although Echo was originally a nymph capable of giving love to Narcissus, her fate in mythology suggests that, while it might have been legitimate for Narcissus to fall in love with Echo, it wasn't appropriate for Narcissus to fall in love with his own echo.

Ultimately, Narcissus died by his own hand, killed by a reflection or an echo of his former self.



This review is part of a reading sequence that includes both Freud and subsequent Queer Theory:

On Narcissism: An Introduction

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Reflecting Narcissus: A Queer Aesthetic

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Ovid's Metamorphoses is a collection various Greek and Roman Myths in an epic poem format. These stories are used to tell the history of mankind in a way and explain events in our world. Ovid does not provide a direct re-telling of these myths but rather often twits them, highlighting details or aspects that are often odd while using humor at the same time. There is a mix of comedies and tragedies. I also noticed the way he would be telling one story and suddenly you are in another. He is able to transport you from one tale to the middle of another, it should be jarring but it works. This is one of my favourite classical works and a masterpieces of Latin literature.

I'm reviewing books I have read in the past but never had a chance to add reviews.

Bu, Dönüşümler ile ikinci buluşmamız. İlki 2019 yılında, sadece İlyada okumuş halimle ve bütün cahil cesaretimle atıldığım bir maceraydı ki bütün dürüstlüğümle söylüyorum kitabın yüzde 80’i benim için hiçbir şey ifade etmedi. Hatta bu yüzden Goodreads’te puan dahi vermedim.

Kitap, aslında he şeyin en başından; Chaos’tan başlayıp Augustus dönemine kadar Yunan ve Roma Mitolojisinin en temel olaylarının anlatıldığı bir destan. Bu açıdan hem insanlığın - en azından mitolojik açıdan- tarihinin izini sürmek ve en temel tragedyaların dahi nasıl aslında birbirinin farklı varyasyonları olabildiğini, sözlü tarihin tıpkı mitolojik metinlerdeki “Söylenti” gibi güçlü ve takip edilebilir olduğunu görmek açısından bu baştan sona takip edilen bütünlüğü izlemek muazzam. Ancak iki farklı şekilde okumuş birisi olarak şunu söylemeliyim ki; bu panaroma konusu ”o zaman diğer kitaplar yerine bunu okumak yeterli gelir” gibi düşünmeyin. Çünkü Dönüşümler içinde; Troya Savaşı, Odysseus’un yolculuğu ya da Aeneis’in Latium’a ulaşma süreci aslında çok kısa bir şekilde geçiyor lakin bu anlatıların geneliyle çokça bağlantılı başka başka hikayelerle örülüyor destan. O yüzden mutlaka Ilyada, Odysseia, Aeneis’i ve bazı tragedyaları okuduktan sonra, Dönüşümler’i bir kapanış olarak planlayın Bu şekilde okumanız çok daha faydalı, keyifli ve doyurucu olacaktır. Bu üçlünün yanında Torunuma Yunan Mitleri ve Kadmos ile Harmonia’nın Düğünü’nü okumuş olmak da - en azından benim için- çok yardımcı oldu. En azından daha önceden biraz fikrim olan ya da farklı varyasyonlarını bildiğim tragedyaları takip etmem kolaylaştı. Bir de elinizin altında mutlaka bir mitoloji sözlüğü bulunsun. Çünkü hem çok fazla isimle hem de bunların Yunan yerine Roma/Latin mitolojisindeki isimleriyle karşılaşacaksınız. Tanrılar kısmı tamam ama ölümlüler kısmında her iki mitolojinin isimlendirmesini de aklınızda tutmanız çok zor. Ben bazı hikayeleri biraz daha detaylı anlattığı için Pierre Grimal’ın sözlüğünü kullandım. Ancak elinizde varsa Azra Erhat’ın Mitoloji Sözlüğü’de ihtiyacınızı fazlasıyla karşılayacaktır.Yine de son zamanlarda okuduğum -Aeneis ya da Terra Nostra da dahil olmak üzere- en zorlayıcı ve yoran metindi. Evet mitoloji ilginizi çekiyorsa, okurken gerçekten çok keyif alıyorsunuz. Lakin diğer yandan da hem kafa hem de yoğunluk olarak en sakin dönemime denk getirmeme rağmen; sanki Ilyada, Odysseia, Aeneis ve tragedyaları arka arkaya, hiç ara vermeden okumuşum gibi yoruldum. O yüzden sıkışık bir döneminize denk getirmemeye özen gösterin derim. Onun dışında muhtemelen yıl içinde okuyacağım en güzel kitaplardan birisiyle yılın ilk ayından karşılaşmış olmanın mululuğu içindeyim.

Bu arada kitabın güzelliğinden bu kadar mest olmuşken, onu bu kadar okunabilir ve anlaşılır kılan Asuman Coşkun Abuagla hakkında da bir şeyler söylemeden geçemeyeceğim. Zira daha önceden, dilimizdeki diğer çeviriyi okumuş ve başka dillerdeki çevirilerine de göz atmış biri olarak gerek dipnotlardaki yorumları ve diğer varyasyonlara dair eklemeleriyle gerekse de oldukça karmaşık bir yazım tercihiyle kaleme alınmış böylesine zor bir eseri böyle okunur kıldığı için ne kadar teşekkür edilse az bence.

I've been reading retelling of Greek mythology all my life, so it's probably time to read it in a more authentic form. There are many English translations for Metamorphoses. I think the enjoyment of reading depends very much on the quality of translation, so this review compares the various versions.

Translated by Charles Martin (Norton) 2004
I bought this after reading this comparison. It's subtly but undeniable frustrating to me. I guess the first paragraph (invocation) is not the best passage to get a good idea. So here is the beginning of Book 3, the story of Cadmus:

And now, his taurine imitation ended,
the god exposed himself for what he was
to cowed Europa on the isle of Crete.
In an action both paternal and perverse,
the captured maiden's baffled father bids
her brother Cadmus to locate the girl
or face an endless term of banishment.

by David Raeburn (new Penguin edition) 2004
Same passage:

Now they had landed on the Cretan soil, when Jupiter dropped
the disguise of a bull, to reveal himself as the god who he
was.
Anxious for news, Europa's father commanded Cadmus
to search for his kidnapped sister. 'Find her, or go into
exile,'
he said--an iniquitous action, if also inspired by devotion.

Hmm . . . some readers might find the line breaks annoying. Not sure if it's any better or worse than Martin translation . . .

by Allen Mandelbaum, 1993

But his false semblance soon is set aside:
on reaching Crete, Jove shows his own true guise.
Meanwhile the father of the ravished girl,
not knowing what had taken place, commands
Cadmus, his son, to find Europa or
to suffer exile from Agenor's land--
a cruel threat, but born of love!

A notable feature of this edition is that it has no Introduction, Translator's Notes, and annotations. It only has modest Afterword. So you jump in, just as you would when you read contemporary books. I like it--I read for fun, so the less hassle, the better. However, because all explanatory points are incorporated in the main text, some people might find it slow.

by A.D. Melville (Oxford World's Classic) 1986

Now safe in Crete, Jove shed the bull's disguise
And stood revealed before Europa's eyes.
Meanwhile her father, baffled, bade his son
Cadmus, set out to find the stolen girl
And threatened exile should he fail--in one
Same act such warmth of love, such wickedness!

I like this, too. Simple and elegant, and I like how it flows. It sounds more literary and slightly antiquated, which may or may not suit your preference.
(The Kindle eBook has a strange format, with wide margin on the left.)

No clear winner. I'd say, if you like poetic language and have no problem figuring out what is happening in poetically abbreviated and slightly classic language, go for Melville. If you'd rather read it like a novel, Mandelbaum (although it is a verse translation). Or you might like the newest translation.

Disclaimer
I only read two languages, and Latin is not one of them. So I cannot tell how accurate these translation may be.

P.S. Oh, the content. In case you don't know, it's filled with murders, rapes, and treacheries.

Being a Roman, and being a creative mind, Ovid edits some myths. For instance, he skips the part about Cronus (Saturn) killing his children, and Zeus (Jove/Jupiter) killing him, his father. This way, Ovid makes it sound as if all evils started with humans.

I wonder how Ovid really felt about Greek/Roman mythology. Rome conquered Greece about 150 years before his time, but culturally, Greeks influenced the Romans and their empire. Did he feel indignant about the strong Greek influence?

I confess that reading Ovid's Metamorphoses has left me a changed man. His focus on transformation parables of ancient myths taught me quite a bit about change. I was intrigued by how often unwanted change was unwillingly created by life-denying action that angers one of the gods. All the great figures of ancient times are here: Daedalus, Achilles, Paris, Perseus, Hector, Pygmalion, Midas, Helen and Aeneas to name but a few. The origins of common fables must have had their ancient roots in Ovid. So much of art, especially painting, music and literature, owes its transformation from the tales articulated with wit and charm by Ovid. This is an important window into ancient times and the stories must have been intriguing to hear in engaging oratory. This is genuinely a great work of literature and the pages really fly by rapidly. These tales of Ovid on change helped me understand better the constant role of change in my own personal transformation. And, thus, the tales of Ovid transformed me in the reading and in the writing transformed Ovid into immortality.

My kind of bible.

33. Metamorphoses by Ovid, translated by A. D. Melville, notes by E. J. Kenney
original date: circa 8 ce
translated 1986
format: Paperback
acquired: Library book sale 2012
read: July 23 - Aug 15
rating: 5

I'm not and cannot properly review Ovid's Metamorphoses. Instead just scattered notes.

- Metamorphoses has tended to fall out of favor at different times because it's mainly entertaining. It seems it kind of mocks serious study, or can in certain perspectives.

- And it is entertaining in a very flexible way. You can read it straight through, or a story at time - usually only a few pages - or in many other ways, including in a reading slump, like I was in when I started. The only thing really daunting about it, assuming you have a decent translation or read Latin, is its length.

- The quality of the translation is maybe not that critical. He'll be entertaining regardless.

- It's almost chronological, beginning with creation and a few other foundation stories (which for me struck a bunch of interesting notes right off) and ending with Roman history.

- Except that Ovid dodges a lot. He avoids, mostly, overlap with Virgil and Homer and other prominent works, finding niches that are generally overlooked, or working in more obscure stories. He has a whole book (there are 15 books) on mostly eastern stories. Anyway, he won't replace your Edith Hamilton or other Greek mythological guides.

- He filled in a lot stories I hadn't caught in ancient literature - like Atalanta and the Calydonian Boar hunt, the battle of the Lapiths and the Centaurs and Pirithous's wedding, or Venus and Adonis.

- But main story lines around Theseus, Minos, Hercules, Jason and the Argo and the hunt for the Golden Fleece, most of the Trojan War or even the basic history of the gods or their battle with the giants all get only cursory coverage.

- He knew everything, or so it seems. Like his previous works, he works in references to practically all known literature of all types. Some more prominent than others, and many lost.

- He also probably (hopefully) made a lot of stuff up.

- So he writes a bit like a scholar and bit like creator.

- This is largely humor, but it's not funny exactly, or even exactly satire, it's just very clever. He creates entertaining situations and then might overdo it a bit. I don't think I ever really minded, even when he got quite gory.

- I think Ovid influences everyone, including many famous art works, but the main work that came to mind as I read it was Spenser's The Faerie Queene. Not that Spenser has Ovid's mythology, but just that they left me with a very similar sense. All that work they put in and how far and deeply it pulls you out of the world and how yet mainly it's playful, how it can leave you with that magical sense that only exists around the fringes of your consciousness or awareness.

- recommended to anyone, because it seemed like it has almost universal appeal, but not everyone, if that makes sense.

There is no rating with my review for a reason. I simply do not dare to assess such a masterpiece of literature. What I can write about, however, is my own experience with this “universal poem” as it is called in the epilogue. My first encounter with the Metamorphoses was back at grammar school, when we read and translated a few fragments. I remember that, after Caesar and Cicero, this was a wholly new experience. For the first time I realized the beauty of the Latin language and enjoyed what I am reading.



Now, almost 40 years later, I read them in total in a prose translation with the Latin text side by side. Though my knowledge of this language has decayed too much, as that I could “read” the Latin text, it was good to get a feeling for the real words, their sound and metre. As part of the collateral reading I found the wonderful website of the Ovidprojekt by Humboldt University Berlin. They not only recorded key scenes in Latin, but also illustrated them with reliefs from the Sanssouci Castle in Potsdam. While I expected the Metamorphoses being both beautiful and entertaining, I was surprised by their scientific depth in the areas of biology, geology, philosophy and even physics. There are also allusions to politics, some of the rather ironic, which may have contributed to the poet’s sorry fate in banishment.



The second reason, why I so much enjoyed reading the Metamorphoses are the members of the dedicated Goodreads group and their observations and contributions. Their variety in terms of geography, age, life and professional experiences helped to illustrate the tremendous influence of the book on music, painting, sculpture and literature. Our lively exchange of views and insights made the lecture of the Metamorphoses to my most rewarding reading experience in 2019.

I kept this on my bedside table and read a few chapters/myths whenever I felt like it which was nice:)
My all time favorite myth is about hyacinthus and Apollo and I loved reading it! It’s the main reason I got the book:)

Also in Orpheus and Eurydice there’s a part that goes “and now, as she died for the second time, she never complained that her husband had failed her - what could she complain of, except that he’d loved her?”
I though that’s as really pretty:)

I underlined a lot of parts but that’s one of my favorite:)

Preface
Chronology
Introduction & Notes
Further Reading
Translator's Note

--Metamorphoses

Notes
Glossary Index
Map of Ovid's Mediterranean World

What a Fantabulous Assortment of Old Time Fairy Tales! Weird and Wonderful, Gloriously Misshapen FRACTURED Fairy Tales...

It'll shock and delight you. It'll set you to dreaming of an endless procession of mythical beasts cavorting under ancient moonlight.

Metamorphoses; whuzzat? Well, to morph is to change, and meta means the bare imaginary Beginnings of the Myths that make a nation what it will become.

The little things shouldn’t faze us! The main thing is the stories they tell.

When reading ancient myths, don’t let yourself be divided by the lowest possible denominator. Don’t relish the who begat who’s. Our stories and not our sex lives are what makes us Whole Again…

When I was eight or nine, my Mom the Librarian brought me Edith Hamilton (a Greek scholar who wrote about the beginnings of stories we all now know well.)

AND my maternal grandmother sent me musical settings of ancient myths on LP!

My salad days were filled with the stories in this book, you see.

To an ASD kid like me it didn't matter how long a book was -

If I could LOSE myself in it!

(Book 1000 from 1001 books) - Metamorphōseōn Librī = The Metamorphoses = Books of Transformations, Ovid

The Metamorphoses is a Latin narrative poem by the Roman poet Ovid, considered his magnum opus. Comprising 11,995 lines, 15 books and over 250 myths, the poem chronicles the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar within a loose mythic-historical framework.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز بیست و نهم ژانویه سال 2014میلادی

‏عنوان: افسانه‌های دگردیسی اوید، اثر: پوبلیوس اویدیوس نسو؛ برگردان: میرجلال‌ الدین کزازی، نشر تهران، معین، چاپ نخست سال 1389، در622صفحه، شابک 9789641650348، ‏موضوع آثار نویسندگان رومی (لاتین) - ترجمه شده به فارسی - سده نخست پیش از میلاد

اووید، یکی از نام‌ آورترین سخنوران «رومی»، یا همان «لاتین» است، و می‌توان ایشان را، پس از «ویرژیل»، و «هومر»، پرآوازه‌ ترین سخن‌سرای «لاتین» نامید؛ «افسانه‌ های دگردیسی»، در «پنجاه بخش» به نظم درآمده، که «اووید» هر بخش را، کتاب نامیده، و کوشیده افسانه‌ هایی از انواع «دگردیسی» را، در آنها بازگو کند؛ در این افسانه‌ ها به همه‌ گونه دگردیسی برمی‌خوریم، از دگردیسی آدم به جانداری دیگر، تا دگردیسی انسان به سنگ و کانی بی جان؛ کتاب، برگردان سروده‌ های «اووید»، و شرح «افسانه‌ های دگردیسی اووید» به زبان پارسایی این مرز و بوم همیشه جاوید است

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 20/07/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 25/06/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی