Narcissus
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Metamorphoses Ovid Bk III:474-510 Narcissus is changed into a flower
As he sees all
this reflected in the dissolving waves, he can bear it no longer, but as yellow
wax melts in a light flame, as morning frost thaws in the sun, so he is
weakened and melted by love, and worn away little by little by the hidden fire.
He no longer retains his colour, the white mingled with red, no longer has life
and strength, and that form so pleasing to look at, nor has he that body which
Echo loved. Still, when she saw this, though angered and remembering, she
pitied him, and as often as the poor boy said ‘Alas!’ she repeated with her
echoing voice ‘Alas!’ and when his hands strike at his shoulders, she returns
the same sounds of pain. His last words as he looked into the familiar pool
were ‘Alas, in vain, beloved boy!’ and the place echoed every word, and when he
said ‘Goodbye!’ Echo also said ‘Goodbye!’
He laid down his
weary head in the green grass, death closing those eyes that had marveled at
their lord’s beauty.
And even when
he had been received into the house of shadows, he gazed into the Stygian
waters. His sisters the Naiads lamented, and let down their hair for their
brother, and the Dryads lamented. Echo returned their laments. And now they
were preparing the funeral pyre, the quivering torches and the bier, but there
was no body. They came upon a flower, instead of his body, with white petals
surrounding a yellow heart.