Mythology Presentation - Narcissus and Echo

Main Characters:

Narcissus - Extremely handsome son of a god and a nymph who was extremely proud of his appearance and disdained those who loved him

Echo - An old and beautiful mountain nymph who loved to talk, but got cursed with the ability to never talk first and to only repeat the last few words others say

Settings:

1. Mountains on Earth where Zeus is playing around with and conversing with the other nymphs
2. Woods and river where Echo is heartbroken by Narcissus and Narcissus falls in love with his own reflection
3. Cave where Echo dies and only her voice repeating what others say is left there

Main Plot:

     One day in the mountains on Earth, Zeus was playing around with and talking to some of the nymphs when Hera appears and the nymphs start to escape. To assist with their escape, Echo begins talk to Hera about different entertaining stories. Feeling deceived, Hera takes away Echo's ability to talk, but only leaving her with the ability to repeat the last of another's words. A couple of days later, a handsome hunter named Narcissus stumbles into the woods and Echo sees him and instantly falls in love with him. Narcissus begins to talk to himself and Echo repeats his words, leading to him asking, "Who's there?" and with Echo only being able to repeat, "Who's there?". Eventually Echo comes out and Narcissus becomes disgusted and breaks her heart, telling her never to come near him. Echo goes into a cave and dies, but her voice remains, only being able to repeat words. Nemesis, the goddess of revenge comes to know how Narcissus keeps breaking the hearts of women who fall in love with him and punishes him by luring him into a pool where he falls in love with his own reflection. Every time Narcissus would look into the water and try to touch his reflection, he would realize that his love would never be returned. So eventually he faded away and turned into the flower that is known as the Narcissus.

Main Conflict:

    Echo's main conflict in this story is that she has the inability to speak to others, unless it's just repeating what others say. This leads to her heartbreak with Narcissus and her eventually dying in a cave.

    Narcissus' main conflict in this story is that he is unable to fall in love with anybody but himself, so he breaks the hearts of many women. He is punished by falling in love with his own reflection and over time realizing that his love from his reflection would never be returned. 

Attempts to Explain...

     The myth of Narcissus and Echo attempts to explain how people came to be narcissistic and what narcissism is. Narcissism is being extremely full of yourself to he point where you love yourself way too much. Not in a positive way, but in an arrogant way. This myth also attempts to explain why you hear your own echo in a cave because Echo dies in the cave and leaves her replying voice there. Lastly, this myth explains how the flower Narcissus came to be.