The myth of Narcissus actually DOES fit the disorder’s unfolding.
(Unless you take it too literally and ignore the hidden metaphors)
Since I have this background of dealing with Greek mythology and spiritual practices, I thought this article might come in handy for you. I also happen to be the daughter and granddaughter of narcissists, as you may already know, and have a long history of dealing with other people with strong narcissistic traits during my journey of healing. I’m not sure if this journey ever comes to an end (I was under the illusion it does, a while back, but recently realised I still have a long way to go), but I hope my insights provide relatability to some.
A pet peeve of mine is mythical literalism. I see it happen in and out of Hellenist communities and it drives me nuts. Sometimes it’s accidental (like when someone regards “this god as the good guy” and “that other god as the bad guy” because of a myth and think they’re interpreting the myth when in fact, no, they’re being literalists because mythology isn’t about good cop and bad cop, it’s about the intricacies and paradoxes of life)… And that’s fine…ish. I guess. I mean, it could be worse; But most of the times, it isn’t accidental like that. Most of the times, people are just lazy and irresponsible. That’s why it drives me nuts. I’ll blame it on my sign — I’m a Capricorn. Don’t approach me with laziness and lack of responsibility.
For instance: oH bUt NaRcIsSuS iSn’T A NaRcIsSiSt, He’S jUsT iN lOvE WiTh ThE mIrrOR.
Sure, Jen. People definitely came up with that myth to tell on overly-confident hot guys, and no other reason. Yeah, right.
In a way, I get it. We have a bit of a prejudice against the Ancients, don’t we? “They were so primitive, so dumb”. Just because they made mistakes every once in a while, we automatically conclude they were TOTALLY INCAPABLE of complex reasoning.
You know who else is capable of complex reasoning and yet makes mistakes? Us. Now. In the 21st century. Just look at the state of things!
Anyway, rant over, on to the myth analysis. I’ll keep it brief and let you draw your own conclusions.
First of all: Narcissus was the son of lunacy and mirrors.
That’s one possible interpretation of his family line. Ever wondered why mythical family trees are so confusing and sometimes contradictory based on which city-state came up with each version? That’s because it’s not supposed to be literal, smartass. It’s a metaphor. And metaphors can be made of many different characters without losing their original built-in lesson. In other words: the important thing, in a god or hero’s lineage, is not “the fact he came from THIS god and THAT mortal and that’s it, period”. No. That’s literalism. The important thing, instead, is “the fact this god represents such and such, and that mortal represents this other thing, which can also be attributed to god Y and mortal Z”.
The best-known version, the Roman version of the myth (by Ovid) tells us that Narcissus was the son of a river god with a river nymph. So… water with water. We’ll later on interpret this as the mirroring quality of water, given how the story unfolds, but I’m giving you the spoiler now.
In the second best-known version, by Egyptian poet Nonnus (which weirdly enough you can find on Wikipedia but not on Encyclopaedia Britannica? Your Roman bias is showing, Britannica? Lol) gives us a more nuanced and (in my opinion) interesting version, where Narcissus is born of the goddess of the moon Selene with a Greek king — also agreeing with the writings of Apollonius of Rhodes, which are widely available in many Academic articles but you can also see excerpts on Wikipedia, to my surprise once again. The thing about this character, called Endymion (Narcissus’ royal father) is that he is widely known across myths for being “eternally asleep” or unconscious in some other way and in love with the moon — hence a lunatic. Selene is fine, it’s not because of her that I drew that conclusion.
Narcissus’ birth can be interpreted many ways (please let me know yours, I’m curious!). Mine goes along the lines of “in order for narcissism to be born (in any person’s mind), there must already be a generous amount of delusion, projection (the mirrors) and lack of conscience / self-awareness”.
Next up: he grows up to be denied the experience of his reflection.
My garden is a bit elevated, naturally, given where my house is, so I’ve already tried growing some of my favourite plants in it (such as meadowsweet) but had no success, because only the ones that enjoy well-drained soil will thrive there. Daffodils (and some tulips, and other dry area flowers) “invaded” it, I don’t even need to buy them. They’re one of these plants prone to root rot, which you absolutely shouldn’t grow in a waterlogged area. As you may know, daffodils are also known as Narcissus. They’re featured in the myth and were cultivated by the Ancient Greek.
Long story short: I know some people are sceptical of the connection between the mythical character Narcissus and this flower of the same name, citing Greek authors who claimed it was a similar but not exact same ethymology — but I’ll roll with it here anyway. I like the idea of Narcissus being represented by a flower that is “afraid of water streams”, because this is exactly how the myth goes:
In Ovid’s version, Narcissus’ mother consults an oracle upon his birth and is told that he will live a long life as long as he never gets to see himself. Mirrors and other reflective objects are hidden from him and he grows up well.
I interpret this part as: “in order for narcissism to grow (continue developing), the person must avoid looking inwards at all costs and instead only focus on external input for guidance”.
Alternatively, water also represents emotional awareness and emotional intelligence, both severely lacking in narcissism.
Finally: he is tricked by “gossip” into looking at his reflection in the water, falls in love with it and drowns.
The very first photo in this article is also relevant here. See how reflections on water aren’t perfectly accurate — they’re distorted to some extent. It’s not by chance that water was chosen as the cause of his death! Let’s not forget Narcissus was a prince. Yes, he lived in Antiquity, but princes had access to mirrors even back then. He could have been killed by shards of glass or bronze. Why not? But instead, all versions agree on water. It’s not a coincidence.
Another interesting aspect of death by water is the fact it stops you from breathing — much like a narcissist is unconsciously always suffocating their real self to prevent it from resurfacing and breaking their delusions.
Worth noting, too, is the fact he was lured by a nymph. Her name was Echo. Again, all versions of the myth agree on it. Echo is the origin of the word we use today to describe, well, echos. The phenomenon where a sound of your own voice is reflected back at you. I’m sure you can see narcissism metaphors in here already, but it gets better: Echo was cursed by Hera as a punishment for gossiping. That’s why she was unable to speak unless it was the last few words of what somebody else said to her.
How many narcissists rely more on gossip and rumours than facts? How many narcissists are willing to trust conspiracy theories, paranoia, fallacies and cherrypicked information, etc, just because it goes well with the distorted image of themselves they came up with? A lot. Maybe all of them.
This, my friends, is why we call Narcissism after Narcissus.
I rest my case.
