Expert: Maria - 4/14/2005

Question
Hello, Maria,

There are far too many differing accounts of the myth of Narkissos. My understanding is that it actually originated with Ovid's Metamorphosis--but I want to be certain.

Do you know which is the original, authentic account?

Regards,
Dan O'Hanlon


Answer
Hello Danny,

the original, authentic source of the Narkissos myth is the account we read in KONON, an obscure Greek mythographer, who in the 1st century B.C. wrote a book of Greek Myths.

It is in fact from Konon that HYGINUS (see below)   and then OVID got this myth.

This in short, while in detail we can say that the earliest, original account of the Narkissos myth dates back to KONON who in his "Narratives" (Diegéseis), which survive in an epitomized version in the "Library" by Patriarch Photios (IX cent. AD), tells of Narkissos.

In Konon however there is no trace either of Echo or any female lover, and Narcissus is depicted as a boy unwilling to be the lover of a certain Ameinias in the contest of Greek juvenal homosexual relations.
Therefore Ameinias who  loves Narcissus, but is scorned , kills himself. So does later Narcissus who  kills himself  with the same sword used by Ameinias, who cursed Narcissus before committing suicide. From his blood the flower narcissus springs  and Eros is finally avenged.

Later OVID enriches Konon's version  by adding the figure of the nymph Echo and the prophecy of Teiresias at Narcissus's birth .

In fact Ovid became probably acquainted with this myth thanks to his friend HYGINUS, who was writing The Fables (Fabulae, in Latin), a handbook of mythology compiled from Greek sources  and embracing all the most important legends of antiquity.

So, from Konon onwards, the myth was  developed and enlarged, mostly by Ovid who made Narcissus famous in his Metamorphoses, Book III, 340-510.

After Ovid, there is another important source, i.e. the Greek PAUSANIAS ( Description of Greece, book IX, chapter 31, 7-9).


To conclude, the main sources about  the myth of Narcissus (Narkissos in Greek) are in ancient times:

1-KONON (1st century B.C.), an obscure Greek mythographer
2-OVID (43 BC – AD 17),that you already know
3-PAUSANIAS(2nd century A.D) Greek traveller and geographer, famous for his Description of Greece, a work that describes ancient Greece.

Hope this can be helpful to you.
Best regards
Maria