Ovids Stories in the Metamorphosis - Literature review Example

This qualification seemed quite trivial and the naiad didn’t worry about it, believing her son would surely live for a long time. As he grew up, Narcissus was a very beautiful individual, causing everyone who saw him fall in love with him. However, Narcissus never found anyone he felt was worthy of his attention. One of those who had fallen in love with him was the nymph Echo, who shriveled up to nothing more than her voice when Narcissus rejected her love. Another hopeful lover was more aggressive and pleaded to Nemesis, the goddess of vengeance, that Narcissus should fall in love with himself and yet be unable to accept his own love.

Nemesis granted the request by fulfilling the fate that Tiresias had foresaw. She caused Narcissus to know himself. When Narcissus bent over a clear silver pool for a drink of water on a hot day, he saw his reflection and thus ‘knew himself’. He promptly fell in love with the image he saw in the pool and did everything he could to reach out and connect with the figure but, since it was only a reflection, all his efforts only caused the object of his adoration to disappear. Finally realizing that the image he is seeing is a reflection that he will never be able to hold, Narcissus beats his breast in grief and dies there by the side of the pool.

Thus, no matter how much he might have been unable to know himself in any other way because of his own arrogance, the simple procedure of seeing his own reflection, thus knowing the image others had loved, was enough to bring about his fate. These types of stories are told through a central linking frame, which also links it to other important classical writers like Chaucer, Dante, and Virgil.