sad echo | 2016-06-08

for the ancient greeks, however, this concept was a little less obvious. so, as they were wont to do, they decided this must be the result of some trickery from the gods.

here’s the sad story:

Echo was a lovely water nymph, admired by Aphrodite herself for her singing voice and her beautiful speech. Zeus, that scoundrel, enjoyed coming down to earth to ‘play’ with the various beautiful nymphs, including Echo. His wife, Hera, the ever jealous and suspicious (rightfully so), followed him down to earth from time to time to find out what he was really doing when he ‘stayed late at the office’.

On one such occasion, Hera witnessed Zeus’ philandering with Echo and a few other nymphs. In an effort to protect Zeus from Hera’s wrath, Echo placed all the blame upon herself. Hera placed a curse on Echo, as she had done to so many creatures before her and so many afterward. Echo’s curse was directed at her beautiful voice — she was now only able to speak the last few words spoken to her and to sing only the last few notes she heard.

As Echo sadly continued to exist in the world, she came across the fabulously beautiful young man, Narcissus. She made herself known to him but he, being the highly narcissistic boy he was, summarily rejected her. In her sorrow, she was cursed to love a man to whom she could not express her feelings and who would not love her as he slowly fell in love with himself while he gazed into the water of the river.

In her bitter anguish, Echo prays to Aphrodite for some relief, so Aphrodite makes her invisible until she remains “only a voice” and “heard by all”.

Narcissus echoed this disappearance by wasting away in his love for himself, leaving behind only a narcissus flower which leans over the river to better view itself.

some fine Greek tragedy, if i do say so myself… which i do

so far on sad echo