I was talking with someone earlier today about the articles I have been writing on Narcissus and Echo. You can find them earlier in my feed or through the link below.
Just to recap briefly, the story of Narcissus and Echo has both Greek and Roman origins and is a bit of a parable meant to help explain human behavior. I think of these legends or myths as serving a similar purpose as Aesop’s fables from around 600 BCE. You might remember stories like “The Lion and the Mouse” or “The Tortoise and the Hare”. Anyway, Narcissus was an extremely attractive creature who went looking for love one day. As he traveled through the forest, he came across a very still pond and saw his reflection in it. He realized how attractive he was and could not tear himself away from his own image. In my personal telling of the story, another creature, Echo, who happened to have a beautiful voice came across Narcissus gazing into the pond. Echo immediately fell in love with Narcissus and tried to woo him away from the pond with her voice. Narcissus did not find her as attractive as his own reflection so he ignored her until, in exasperation, she threw rocks into the pond. Of course, the rocks cause ripples in the pond that ruined the perfect view that Narcissus had of himself. The destruction of his ideal image so enraged Narcissus that he turned on Echo, berating her so thoroughly that she lost her own voice. Narcissus demanded after that that she only repeat words back to him that he told her to say. She could no longer speak her own thoughts and was doomed to say and do only what would keep Narcissus happy enough to keep his attention on the pond and his own image.
This story is so rich in meaning it is hard to even know where to stop with the metaphors, but it gives some great insight to those who study human nature. Narcissism is everywhere these days as it was in antiquity, and can be easily identified when a person becomes enraged when you challenge their perception of themselves or of others. Echoism or codependent traits are easy to see in people who abandon themselves and their own value in order to appease the Narcissist’s need to maintain his illusion of self-perfection.
What occurred to me today, is that this is the dynamic that played out in the Bible with the prophets who challenged the corruption of the Jewish Pharisaical system. Those that needed to protect the image, sought to silence the prophets who had thrown rocks into the ponds of the system and/or the leaders.
They ignored Echo after Echo throughout time and eventually took steps to ultimately silence those speaking the truth they could not bear, those that were causing ripples in the perfect pond of the law, by killing them.
Then came Jesus. During his ministry, he dropped stone after stone into the pond of the Pharisee system, threatening it and those who were trying to prop it up. Jesus could not merely echo the words he was supposed to and even became louder and boulder in his disruption of their pond scum mirror to the point where they sought to ultimately silence him. In death, however, Jesus dropped the ultimate rock in the pond, shattering its capacity to be used as a mirror to control everyone. The Rock that was meant to be the ultimate offense then became the foundation from which the message of the gospel of reconciliation could ring out, unhindered.
Pretty cool imagery, I think. No disrespect intended in merging the Biblical story with Greek myths. The message isn’t changed, it is just a way to put handles on it so that it can be offered to others.
