Nemesis

Zeus pursued Nemesis over the earth and through the sea. She changed her form repeatedly to escape him, and at last became a goose. Zeus changed into a swan and caught her. They mated, and Nemesis later laid an egg.

The egg came to Sparta. Leda, wife of King Tyndareus, found it lying in a marsh. It was hyacinth-coloured, so she carried it home and hid it in a chest. When it opened, Helen emerged. In the account connected with Rhamnus in Attica, Nemesis was Helen’s mother, while Leda suckled and reared her.

Another version says that Zeus pretended to be a swan pursued by an eagle. He took refuge in Nemesis’s bosom and ravished her. In due course, she laid an egg. Hermes threw it between Leda’s thighs as she sat on a stool with her legs apart, and Leda gave birth to Helen. Zeus then placed the Swan and Eagle among the stars to commemorate the ruse.

Some accounts include the Dioscuri among the children connected with the egg. Other versions say that Leda herself laid an egg after having intercourse in bird form. A further account says that the egg fell from the moon. The usual version instead makes Leda Zeus’s companion in the form of a swan, while Nemesis is named as Helen’s mother in the local legend of Rhamnus.

Narcissus turned away from Echo as she came out of the woods with her arms outstretched. She could only repeat the words of others, and had followed him through the forest, longing to speak. He had called, “Is anyone here?”, and she had answered, “Here.” When he called, “Come!”, she repeated, “Come!” Then he rejected her with angry disgust and declared that he would die rather than give her power over him. Echo withdrew to a lonely cave. Her body faded through grief until only her voice remained.

Narcissus continued to reject those who loved him. He was a Thespian, the son of the blue nymph Leiriope and the river-god Cephisus. When Leiriope consulted the seer Teiresias, he said that Narcissus would live to old age if he never came to know himself. Narcissus reached sixteen with many rejected lovers, both male and female, because he took pride in his beauty. Among those he wounded was Ameinius. In one version, Ameinius killed himself on Narcissus’s threshold and called on the gods to avenge him. In another, a rejected maiden made the prayer.

The avenging power answered. Nemesis made Narcissus fall in love while denying him the fulfilment of love. At Donacon in Thespia, he found a spring clear as silver. No cattle, birds, wild beasts, fallen branches, or leaves had disturbed its surface. He knelt at the grassy edge to drink and saw his reflection in the water. At first he tried to embrace and kiss the beautiful figure before him. Then he recognised himself and remained beside the spring, gazing at his own image.

He could neither possess nor leave the one he loved. His grief consumed him, although he found comfort in the thought that his other self would remain faithful. Echo grieved with him and repeated his cries. Narcissus weakened beside the spring and died there. After his death, his body was changed into the narcissus flower.