The Creation of the Echo
Echo was one of the nymphs that Pan fell in liove with. She was a joyous and happy nymph who prattled all day long and never kept quiet enough for Pan to win her with his music and pottery. One day Hera came down to earth to look for Zeus. She suspected that he was with the nymphs, but Echo detained her long enough with idle chit chat that Zeus was able to get away. Hera in rage cast a spell on Echo so that she could only repeat what others said.
Now at last Pan thought he could win her by his words. But before he had a chance she had lost her heart to another. He was Narcissus, and he was so handsome that every girl and every nymph fell in love with him. Unfortunately he loved nobody but himself.
Echo trailed softly behind Narcissus as he hunted in the woods, hoping to hear an endearing sound she could repeat. But he never so much as noticed her. At night fall, they came to a quiet pool where they could rest.Narcissus was thirsty so he bent to drink.Suddenly he stopped and stared for in the mirroring surface of the water, he saw the handsomest face he had ever seen.He smiled and the face smiled back at him. Joyfully He leaned down and said "I love you". Echo repeated "I love you". But Narcissus never saw nor heard her he was spellbound by the face in the water. He did not know that it was his own face that he had fallen in love with, and he sat smiling at himself not eating nor drinking till he withered away and died. Where he had sat sprang the Narcissus flower. Echo stood by the flower and greived till she too wasted away. Nothing was left of Echo but her voice which can still be heard to this day, senselessly repeating the words of others. Pan grieved for a while but then another pretty nymph named Syrinx found him and he forgot all about Echo.
That's how the Echo was created.
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