Long ago a beautiful boy named Narcissus was born. An oracle told his mother that he could live forever, but only if he never saw his reflection.

          Echo, a nymph, used to be the goddess Juno's servant. Echo liked to gossip, and often told lies about the gods. One day, Juno became angry and sent Echo away to live in the forest, saying, "As punishment for your lies, from this day forward you will only be able to repeat what others have spoken."

           One day Echo saw Narcissus. She fell in love with him at first sight. Echo quietly began to follow him. How she longed to be able to say, "I love you." She started to cry.

           Narcissus turned. "Is someone here?"

           "Here," Echo whispered.

           Narcissus saw no one. "Come here," he cried.

           "Come here," Echo answered.

           Now the young man was angry. "Who are you? What do you want?"

           The nymph rushed from her hiding place and tried to kiss him, but Narcissus pushed her away. "No! Go away! I will die before I love you!"

           "I love you!" she answered, her heart broken.

           Narcissus ran away. He reached a stream. When he leaned over to take a drink, he saw his beautiful face reflected in the water. He had never seen his reflection before, so he thought that his reflection must be someone who lived in the stream. He fell in love with this beautiful person.

           He leaned over to kiss the person in the stream, but when he did, the person vanished.

           "Come back," Narcissus cried, but every time he tried to kiss his love, the reflection disappeared. Narcissus could not bear to leave his love, and so he began to waste away. Finally, he died.

            Echo, too, wasted away, leaving behind only her voice. It is Echo's voice that sometimes answers us in the mountains.

            Narcissus' body disappeared, and in its place beside the stream grew some beautiful flowers with silvery-green leaves and golden petals. These flowers have been known ever since as narcissus.

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这是一个爱情故事，即他恋的故事，但同时又是一个没有爱情的故事，即自恋的故事。
自恋一词：Narcissus来自希腊神话中美少年纳喀索斯，他爱上了自己的倒影直到憔悴而死变成水仙花。
但这个故事往往被人忽视了前半部分：林中仙女Echo（意为回音），她最擅长讲故事，但天后赫拉嫉妒她，使她丧失了语言能力，她无法开口说话，除非别人先开口，而后她才能重复别人的字句。遭受咒语禁锢的Echo在林中看到了Narcissus，情不自禁地爱上他，但她无从表白，必须等对方先开口，但Narcissus对她不屑一顾，Echo心碎而死，化作了山中的回音。
回音——声音的影子，Narcissus因此遭到惩罚，让他爱上了自己水中的影子。
于是，这个传说故事表明：纯真的他恋，同时是露骨的自恋。