Narcissus was thought to have been the most handsome young man in all of Ancient Greece: in other words, he was a proper fittie. Narcissus was as close as you could get to perfection, but for all his perfections he had one vital imperfection… his vanity.

Narcissus could pretty much have any girl he desired, but he had never had a girlfriend as he felt nobody was good enough for him. His vanity was never more evident than when he was pursued by a nymph called Echo.

Echo, known for being a right little chatterbox, had lost the ability to speak after being punished by the Goddess, Hera, leaving Echo only able to echo the words of others (hmmm… what a coincidence).

This made her pursuit of Narcissus too tough and Narcissus cruelly rejected her, leaving Echo alone and heartbroken.

Unbeknown to Narcissus, the Goddess, Aphrodite, had overheard everything. She decided to punish Narcissus for his vanity and treatment of Echo with a curse: the next time he saw his reflection in the water, Narcissus would immediately fall in love… with himself.

His vanity had now turned into insanity as he couldn’t bear to be apart from his reflection. Without any food, water or sleep, Narcissus eventually withered away into nothingness.

It is said; Aphrodite eventually turned him into a flower, now known as the Narcissus, which bends towards the water, rather than the Sun.