Narcissus

Definitions

1. Any of several bulbous flowering plants, of the genus Narcissus, having white or yellow cup- or trumpet-shaped flowers, notably the daffodil
2. A youth who spurned the love of Echo and fell in love with his own reflection in a pool: in some versions of the myth, he drowned trying to reach it, while in others he sat fixated until a god took pity and transformed him into a flower.
   Greek
3. A beautiful young man, like the mythological Greek Narcissus

Equivalents

Examples

“The Daughters of the Flood⟳ have⟳ ſearch'd the Mead / For Violets pale, and cropt the Poppy's Head: / The Short Narciſſus and fair Daffodil, / Pancies to pleaſe the Sight, and Caſſia ſvveet to ſmell: […]”

“At Hortus Bulborum you will find⟳ heirloom narcissi that date⟳ back at least to the 15th century and famous old tulips like⟳ 'Duc van Tol' (1595) and its sports.”

“At the beginning of his narrative, Ishmael mentions Narcissus, the legendary character who plunged into the water and was drowned in the attempt⟳ to grasp his own⟳ essence (p. 14). Narcissus was unwilling to understand⟳ the relationship between himself and “the ungraspable phantom of life” in gradualistic terms and sought to bring⟳ that relationship to immediate closure, thus annihilating himself.”

“We may now affirm that Plato's cave is inhabited by Narcissus. He already knows, but the knowledge he possesses is still a bit confused, obscure (this knowledge is situated in the caves of the memory, a dark space much like⟳ Narcissus’s place⟳).”

“Narcissus, as the myth has it, died because, unlike Lacan's child, he did not recognize himself; nor did he perceive the mirror for what it was: a boundary between reality and fiction.¹⁵”

CEFR level