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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?
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]
Full Transcript
- 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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