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ELA 4: Echo and Narcissus 59 Views


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Description:

Honestly, their parents probably should have known better than to name them "Echo" and "Narcissus." How else did they expect their stories to end?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:13

You've all probably seen or heard of The Bachelor and wondered how it's possible that people

00:17

can act so cuckoo in the name of love.

00:19

Well you ain't seen nothin' yet! [Couple watching TV]

00:21

Take the mythological Greek story of Echo and Narcissus.

00:25

It all begins with Zeus falling for the wrong woman, as most mythology does. [Book opens]

00:30

This time he was making eyes at Echo, a mountain nymph.

00:33

In case you're wondering, a nymph is basically a magical divine spirit that is closely linked [Coop explaining nymph]

00:37

to nature – in Echo's case, mountains.

00:39

But what's most important to remember is that nymphs are almost always super-duper beautiful.

00:43

And when you take a bunch of really beautiful women and put them near a bunch of macho male [Women in the river as Zeus, Poseidon and Ares watching on]

00:47

Gods, well, you're just asking for trouble.

00:52

Trouble is exactly what happened.

00:54

See... Hera, Zeus's wife, [Hera sitting at dinner table]

00:56

got just a wee bit upset over all the attention her husband was giving Echo.

01:00

We can't really blame her considering all of Zeus's past…relationship issues.

01:05

So what does she do? [Hera walking in forest]

01:06

She cursed Echo to only be able to speak by repeating what other people have just said.

01:21

So Echo runs off to live her life as a mimic in the forest, and later sees Narcissus, a

01:26

hunter known for his incredible beauty. [Dino explaining Narcissus]

01:28

This guy is like Brad Pitt plus Bradley Cooper times a thousand.

01:32

Naturally, Echo immediately falls in love with him. [Echo's eyes turn to love hearts]

01:35

But, being that she's been cursed and all, she has no way of saying hello.

01:39

All she can do is follow him around and hope that he says hi to her first.

01:54

See, Narcissus was a pretty darn obsessed with himself and didn't really care for anyone else. [Narcissus walking along forest path]

02:04

So instead of saying hello to the strange girl following him around, he completely

02:08

ignores her. [Narcissus ignoring Echo]

02:09

Awkward.

02:10

Eventually, Narcissus comes across a pond.

02:12

And in that pond he sees the love of his life. [Narcissus approaches pond]

02:15

Was it a beautiful mermaid?

02:16

Or maybe a princess trapped underwater?

02:21

No.

02:23

It was his own reflection. [Narcissus' reflection appears in water]

02:24

And so there they both would wait: Narcissus refusing to leave his reflection, and Echo

02:29

refusing to leave Narcissus.

02:31

And of course, as you'd sort of expect of two people who refuse to move, they both eventually

02:35

wither away and die.

02:40

Neither of them are totally gone.

02:42

A Narcissus flower sprouts up by the pond, while Echo's voice lives on despite her body [Narcissus flower appears by pond]

02:47

withering away.

02:48

So now that we've finished that rather tragic story, let's discuss what we can take away from it.

02:53

Well, first and foremost, we can say we learned to stay far away from Zeus and Hera...

03:02

But more generally, it seems that a major theme of this story is love. [Coop discussing the theme of love]

03:06

Whether it's Zeus falling for Echo, Echo loving Narcissus, or Narcissus loving, well, himself,

03:11

the story is full of love.

03:12

But what makes this love story different than others? [Dino explaining no happy endings]

03:15

There's no happy ending.

03:16

Zeus doesn't get his love…well the one he wanted anyway.

03:19

Echo doesn't get her love, and Narcissus, well, he sort of just ends up dying while

03:23

trying to kiss his own reflection. [Narcissus turns into skeleton]

03:27

That it's important not to love yourself too much, and that you'll be a whole lot happier

03:31

in the long run if you learn to look around and love other people. [People partying]

03:34

Y'know, like that beautiful girl staring at you trying to kiss your own darn reflection.

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