Narcissus was the son of the river god Cephisus and the nymph Liriope.
When Narcissus was born,
Tiresias (a
seer) was asked if the child would
live a long life. Tiresias replied "If he never knows himself".
As a handsome youth he left a trail of broken hearts from rejected
lovers of both sexes. Narcissus wanted nothing to do with falling
in love from anyone and rebuffed all attempts at romance.
His cruelty to Echo was not the only instance.
Finally, the nymphs offered a prayer that he might feel what it
was to love and meet no return of affection.
"So may he himself love, and not gain the thing he loves"
Narcissus, upon finding an image of himself in a pool then fell
in love with himself and, not being able to find consolation,
he died of thirst at the pool, for if Narcissus had reached to
take a drink, he would have shattered his own image into thousands
of pieces.
It is said that Narcissus still keeps gazing on his image in the
waters of the river Styx.
An alternate story claims that it is silly for a man to fall in love
with his own reflection. Instead, it asserts that Narcissus had a
twin sister who was exactly alike in appearance. When she died,
he used to go to the spring, and knowing that it was his reflection
that he saw. There he found some relief for his love, because the
image reminded him of his sister.
The flower that Narcissus turned into later was used when
Hades abducted Persephone as "a snare for
the bloom-like girl". Persephone was attracted by the sweet scent of
the narcissus, and gathered the flowers.