Narcissus in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Narcissus

5 passages from 4 ancient authors that tell of Narcissus, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. Narcissus was a hunter in Greek mythology, son of the river god Cephissus and the nymph Liriope. He was a very beautiful young man, and many fell in l... For the story in one place, read our article on Narcissus.

Ovid (2)

Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.316–399Teiresias and EchoZeus (Jupiter, 'Jove' in More's translation) and Hera (Juno) quarrel over whether men or women have more pleasure in love, and Teiresias (Tiresias), who has been both, is asked to judge. He says women, and Hera strikes him blind, and Zeus gives him the gift of prophecy; he tells the nymph Liriope that her son Narcissus will live only if he never knows himself. The nymph Echo, who once used her chatter to keep Hera from catching Zeus' mistresses, is punished by being able only to repeat the last words of others, and she falls in love with Narcissus, who rejects her and every other lover.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.402–510NarcissusOne of the lovers whom Narcissus has scorned prays that he may love and not win his love, and Nemesis grants the prayer. He sees his own reflection in a clear pool, falls in love with it and cannot leave, and wastes away. Echo, who still loves him, grieves, and when he dies a flower with white petals and a yellow centre grows in his place.

Pausanias (1)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.31.1–9Helicon: Arsinoe, the Horse's Fount, the works and death of Hesiod, and Narcissus' springPausanias describes further offerings on Helicon, including the statue of Arsinoe on a bronze ostrich, the old tripod of Hesiod and the Horse's Fount, said to have been made by Bellerophon's steed. He reports the conflicting views on which poems Hesiod wrote and on his death at the hands of Ctimenus and Antiphus. He also gives the Thespian story of Narcissus' spring and an alternative story of Narcissus and his twin sister.

Nonnus of Panopolis (1)

Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 48.474–652Book 48: Dionysos' wine-spring and the sleeping AuraLovesick and unable to speak to the unyielding Aura, Dionysos sees the shade of Ariadne reproach him in a dream. Remembering how he won another nymph by a potion, he opens a spring of wine on the rock when Aura is parched with thirst at midday. She drinks, falls asleep, and Dionysos binds her hands and feet and takes her while she sleeps.

Conon (1)

Conon, Narrations 19.1–27.1Linus, Narcissus and the Dorian migrationsThe story of Linus explains the Argive lament and the festival of the lamb. Theoclus' betrayal of the Bisaltae, Dardanus' crossing to the Troad, a boy's serpent and the doom of Corythus and Oenone lead on to Narcissus at Thespiae. The section closes with the Cretans in Italy, the death of Codrus and the descendants of Deucalion.