rwcarter
Narcissus kneels at the edge of a deep blue pond gazing intently at his own reflection in a golden cup, struck by its beauty. Irises and narcissi grow around him although they haven’t bloomed yet.
Narcissus
Rodney
Narcissus
- son of a river god by a nymph, he was a beautiful boy who turned the heads of members of both sexes
- his mother was advised that he would live a long time as long as he didn’t know himself; so his mother had never permitted him to see his own reflection
- he had spurned Echo’s love, causing her to waste away until only her voice was left
- as punishment for rebuking Echo, Aphrodite caused him to fall in love with his own reflection one day while resting near a pool of water after a hunt
- he tried to embrace and kiss the image the confronted him, but of course was unable to
- he pined away for his reflection until he wasted away and was turned into a flower; an alternate version of the myth has him kill himself, his blood soaking the earth and creating the white narcissus with its red corollary
- the changeable, vulnerable, gentle beginnings of feelings and relationships – the nascent emergence of the capacity to feel
- vain self-love
- a messenger who brings the fragile beginnings of self-love
- self-discovery in that one must recognize and value oneself before one can love another because seeking in another what one has not found within oneself first is futile
- discovering one’s worthiness to be loved is the start of one’s capacity to love another as an individual as opposed to a potential supplier of qualities that one needs to feel complete
- can represent a capacity for love or the renewal of faith in love after being hurt which may take the form of a slow and gradual interest in oneself – one’s body or environment or surrounding oneself with things that bring pleasure instead of pain
- time and space must be provided for new feelings to grow and develop
- a new phase where the world of feelings must be developed and allowed to mature
- the Page must “die” in the sense of transforming before he can love another – he must move from self-preoccupation to awareness of others
- the effect of being sheltered by one’s parents
- karma at work
- the unintended consequences of one’s actions (rejecting Echo led to his own demise)
- rejecting love because one doesn’t love oneself
Rodney