The Myth of Narcissus

Eco and Narcissus

Echo, a nymph of the woods and fountains, was an unstoppable gossip. He always went to Olympus, at Zeus's request, to distract Hera with his conversation while the king of the gods and men took their turns among the mortals (or rather, among mortals). Hera, however, discovered the ruse and punished the poor nymph by taking away her gift of speech and condemning her to repeat only the words she heard from others.

Narcissus, son of the river god Cephus and the nymph Liríope, was a young man of great beauty, but insensible to love. Many young and diverse nymphs fell in love with him, but had no success. The nymph Eco, after spending days and days observing narcissus bathing in a lake, with some difficulty, also declared her love to her and was so desperate to be repelled and greatly humiliated, that began to languish: the beautiful body disappeared and for Only his voice remained.

The other nymphs, revolted, cried out for revenge and was attended by Aphrodite the goddess of love, Aphrodite recognized that the love of the nymph Echo, was true and interceded for his son Eros arrow the heart of Narcissus. One day, during a hunt, Narcissus bent over the source of Thespias, near Mount Helicon; when contemplating the surface of the water was shot by Eros with the arrow of the love is fallen in love by what it saw, that is, by its own reflection. Indifferent to everything, the boy no longer left and could not even take his eyes off his image and spend days and nights contemplating his image. Eventually he died of starvation, and at the place of his death the flower called the narcissus grew.

The narcissus flower blooms in early spring and is often found in moist soil near a pond. It's self-sufficient.
The flower usually has six white petals with a yellow central funnel containing stamina and stigma.
The stem tilts before the flower, hanging so that the flower is turned down instead of up.

According to the myth, this is because Narcissus was looking down at his reflection when it was transformed into the flower.
Otherwise, the stem is straight and steady.

In Islam, the Hadith of Bukhari associates the flower with the honest and upright man.
The symbol was also compared with the transformation of vanity and self-centrism into the humility of a more individualized and spiritual being.