章節 21: Origins: The Narcissus

Hesiod's Third Era – The Brazen Age of Mankind (1628 BC – 1472 BC)

In this era, various stories of love and despair have inspired many poets - from the myths that brought joy, to ones which only ended in sadness and tragedy.

Nyssian Plains – 1520 BC

People have always loved her – for unlike any other gods, who loved bloody sacrifices from men, she only requires humble acts for her to make their farms fruitful. She was often called the 'Good Goddess', for she is the one who grants their fields a bountiful and abundant harvest. She is Demeter, the Goddess of Grain and Agriculture.

Because of her understanding and kindness, she never found it hard in her heart to not be given a seat in the Olympus Guardians. The gods always thought that her benevolence is far more needed by the people of the land, and she gladly took it as a responsibility to bring fertility in their crops. Today, after blessing the nearby farm and granting its people the gift of the Corn, she was sitting contently under the shade of an oak tree.

Demeter looked ahead towards her only daughter from Zeus, the only source of her sunshine, Persephone. The light she brings make the flowers dance and bloom whenever she's around, being the Goddess of Summer and Spring. Her lively, youthful form is smiling widely with her friends as they were gathering flowers in the meadow of soft grass, roses, crocuses, lovely violets, and irises.

"Don't stray too far, my dear! Don't go near the cliff." She said as she picked some ambrosia from the woven basket beside her. Her daughter was beginning to be out of her sight.

Meanwhile, Persephone was somehow a little irked by her mother's last remark. 'Honestly, mom is just sooo overbearing. I mean, what could go wrong from just picking up some wildflowers?'

"Persephone, look here! There's a lovely hyacinth in full bloom!" One of her friends called out to her. Excited by her words, she stood up to look for the said beautiful flower. Persephone was about to hurry over her friends' direction, when suddenly, she caught a whiff of a fragrance so enticing – bewitching her to walk towards the opposite direction of the meadow.

Oh, she could not resist such sweet smell! Whatever flower that is, she must have it. She continued to search for the source of that fragrance, and what she saw was something she did not expect.

It was a young girl, about the same age as her. Her braided hair was the color of fire, and her clothes weren't the usual flowing peplos that she sees from girls she always go along with. She had the appearance of someone ready for a hunt, because on her shoulders, a bow and a quiver of arrows were slung. In her hand, she was holding what Persephone thought was the most beautiful flower she's ever seen. And there were no doubts in her mind, that that flower is the source of this fragrance that is sending her into this glorious daze.

"Excuse me?" Persephone said. "Do you mind telling me the name of that flower you are holding?"

"It's a Narcissus." The girl said, and Persephone noted her puffy eyes from which tears were recently shed.

"Oh, Narcissus, what a beautiful name – truly befitting of its appearance and smell!"

But the girl answered in a low, bitter voice. "No. It's the most despicable flower of them all." And with that statement, she destroyed the flower that she was holding, crushing it from the force of her hands, tearing it piece by piece, and finally stomping on it as she threw it to the ground. Persephone was horrified.

"How – how could you!" She knelt to the ground and cupped the remains of the flower in her hands.

The girl only looked at the flower in disgust and said, "I must find the others of its kind." She was about to walk away but Persephone said something that demanded her reply.

"Why? Why must you do such things to this lovely, innocent, little flower?"

'Why?' Corinna thought. 'It's because of that flower that my friend's life became miserable!'

When she became a full-fledged immortal Huntress of the Moon after her near-death experience with the only man she's ever been close with, she had more liberty to roam around the woods to appreciate more the beauty of the wild. In one of her travels, she met the kindest and most beautiful nymph she's ever known. That nymph later on became her best friend. Her name was Echo.

One day, Echo told her about the man she was falling in love with. Corinna never believed in such concept, for she only follows the teachings of her Mistress, who swore about aversion to such emotion and kept men at bay from her life.

The man was named Narcissus. Apparently, his beauty is too great, that all girls who saw him longed to be his, but he would have none of them. He will pass the loveliest carelessly by, no matter how much she tried to make him look at her. Their broken hearts meant nothing to him.

Unknown to Echo, she was under the monitoring of Hera, who feared that her beauty might somehow take her husband away from her. Because of that unreasonable jealousy, Echo became another unhappy girl who was unjustly punished by the Goddess of Marriage. Hera condemned her to never use her tongue again except to repeat what was said to her.

"You will always have the last word, but no power to speak first." The Goddess chanted.

The next time Corinna and Echo met, Echo was no longer her cheerful self. She could not talk normally, but her actions only spoke of one thing – she wanted to see her Narcissus. So she took her to the woods where the lad was usually seen. And there, sitting be the rock, looking up to the sun, was the young man himself.

Corinna stayed hidden by the bushes as her friend continued to look at her unrequited love from afar. Suddenly, Narcissus might have sensed another presence, and said, "Is anyone here?"

".…here." Echo responded.

Narcissus heard it but he saw no one, so he called again. "Show yourself. Come!"

".…come." Her joyful tone is obvious as she stepped into the light with her arms outstretched towards him.

Narcissus looked disgusted at what he saw, and uttered, "Not so. I will die before I give you power over me."

".…I give you power over me." She said in response. Then, the man fled from the scene, leaving Echo heartbroken. She went back to the bushes in shame and settled in the comfort of Corinna's hug.

"There, there. You're too kind. He doesn't deserve you." She said to the nymph as she patted her back.

".…he doesn't deserve you." The nymph simply sobbed.

Little did they know, the Goddess of Revenge, Nemesis, saw the entire thing. She took it upon herself to punish the cold-hearted man.

'May he who does not love others learn to love only himself.'

When Narcissus bent over a clear pool for a drink, he saw his own beautiful reflection, and fell in love with it.

"Now I know - I know what others have suffered from me! But how? How can I reach the loveliness of myself as mirrored in this water? Oh, I cannot leave it. Only death will set me free." He touched his face as he said it.

And so he hurt over this form of love. He was pining, leaning perpetually in the water, fixed in one long gaze. There, Corinna and Echo found him, spiralling into despair, withering away.

Echo pushed Corinna away so the latter retorted, "What? You want me to go away?"

".…go away." She too was hurting – in pain over the sufferings of her beloved.

"Echo...please."

".…please." And she understood her friend's final wish.

"Fine, Echo. Farewell."

"....farewell."

After several days, Narcissus died. Echo soon followed. The nymphs were kind enough in their deaths, and sought their bodies to give them proper burials. Where they had lain it, blossomed a new and fragrant flower – its aesthetic, beyond compare to others. The nymphs called it by the name of the beautiful man, Narcisuss.

As Corinna recalled that story, she clenched her fist more in anger. Persephone persisted on.

"Tell me, why?"

She was about to fire back a response when suddenly, the space before them began to shimmer and….bend? From that tear in the fabric of air, emerged the figures of four mortals. They landed on top of one another. The two young ladies only looked at them, dumbfounded.

"So…heavy…gerroff me guys!" Julius mumbled from the bottom of the stack.

Sayo, who was at the top, went down first, followed by Tobias and Rexis. As they propped themselves in the soft grass of the meadow, they finally looked around to see where the heck they have landed.

"It's you! The hunter girl!" Rexis exclaimed, pointing at Corinna, who drew her weapons and pointed it at them.

"Woah, woah, woah calm down, you guys." Julius said, putting up his hands to the sides in an attempt to stop further commotion. Then, she looked at the familiar girl.....and the unfamiliar one who was standing beside her.

If they didn't fuck up in their entrance, his intuition is most probably correct.

"Are – are you, perhaps, Persephone?" He asked.