Echo & love...

As if the first curse weren’t enough (read here), Echo had the misfortune of falling in love with none other than Narcissus… (Read about Narcissus’s curse here). That alone was bad enough—but things only got worse.

Of course, Narcissus couldn’t return anyone’s love—and that’s not even the point. What really matters for understanding the story’s message is Echo’s response to his coldness and arrogance, and to her unrequited love.

Having lost the ability to speak freely—having lost her voice—she could only repeat Narcissus’s words. She followed him, echoing him, until he vanished. And with time, she too faded away, until nothing remained but her voice.

There’s a clear suggestion here: without your own identity, without your own power, you begin to cease to exist. In ancient myths, that meant a literal, physical disappearance.

Today, it’s more symbolic. It means fading as an individual, losing the ability to think and act on your own. And that is not less real, but even more tragic, disappearance.

Echo, a Greek Nymph