Echo had deliberately held Juno in conversation while the nymphs fled to safety. Juno had done this to her, because one day the goddess had gone out to catch Jove sporting with nymphs on the mountainside. At the time Echo had a body, not just a voice, but her powers of speech were as limited as they now are: she could only reply with the last word of whatever was said to her. She saw Narcissus while he was netting terrified stags. The nymph Echo could not remain silent if someone else spoke, nor could she herself speak first. Many youths desired the boy while many girls desired the youth, but so harshly arrogant was the soul in that tender form that no youth nor girl could touch him. When the son of Cephisos became fifteen, he could be viewed either as a boy or a youth. The final result proved its accuracy, though, in the form of the boy’s death and the unique madness which caused it. When she asked Tiresias whether her son would live to ripe old age, he replied, “Yes, if he doesn’t meet himself.įor a long time the soothsayer’s prediction appeared meaningless. When her time came, the lovely nymph gave birth to an infant who even from the first was utterly loveable she named him Narcissus. The first of those to demonstrate with certain confidence the truth of his words was the sea nymph Liriope whom once the river-spirit Cephisos had raped, binding her in his curving banks and smothering her with his waves. Tiresias became famous throughout the cities of Aonia for giving unfailingly accurate predictions to those who asked him about fate. Artist Johann Whilhelm Baur (1600-1640), Nuremberg edition, 1703.
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