Echo (mythology)
Echó ( ancient Greek Ἠχώ , from ἠχή ēchē "sound") is an oread (mountain nymph) in Greek mythology . The well-known phenomenon of the echo is named after her.
myth
punishment
On behalf of Zeus, Echo entertained his wife Hera by telling stories so that Zeus had time for amorous adventures. When Hera discovered this plot, she deprived Echo of language as a punishment, leaving her only the ability to repeat the last words addressed to her.
Echo and Narcissus
For this reason Echo was not able to confess her love to the beautiful young man Narcissus . One day, however, when Narcissus was hunting deer in the forest, he was separated from his companions. Echo followed him quietly through the undergrowth, but couldn't start a meaningful conversation himself. Finally Narcissus exclaimed:
Is somebody here?
Here here!
replied Echo to the amazement of Narcissus, who could not see anyone.
Come over!
Come come!
Why are you avoiding me
Are you avoiding me, are you avoiding me
Let's get together here!
Come together here!
repeated Echo, stepping out from the trees with outstretched arms.
But Narcissus spurned her embrace, and Echo felt so miserable and humiliated that she hid in a cave, stopped eating and eventually withered until she was only voice. Her gaunt bones became the rocks that reflect the echo, but at the same time have the appearance of a beautiful young woman.
Later, the goddess of vengeance, Nemesis, punished Narcissus by falling hopelessly in love with his beautiful reflection when he saw it in a pond.
Echo and Pan
Another tradition tells of Pan's love for her, which she did not reciprocate. He tried in vain to reach them, until at last he made the shepherds mad in his passion, so that they tore up the echoes, the limbs of which have since been scattered all over the world.
reception
Echo is a character in Christoph Ransmayr's 1988 novel The Last World .
The asteroid (60) Echo was named after her.
literature
- Ludwig von Sybel : Echo . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1,1, Leipzig 1886, Col. 1213 f. ( Digitized version ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ovid , Metamorphoses 3.359 to 369
- ^ A b Ovid, Metamorphoses 3,370–406
- ^ Longos , Daphnis and Chloë 3:23
- ^ Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 21, Blackwell Science, 1861 in Google Book Search
