Echo and Narcissus

In Greek mythology, Echo was a mountain nymph who loved her own voice.

In one version of the myth surrounding her, Echo falls in love with Narcissus, who rejects her because he thinks himself too beautiful for her mere love.

Echo dies of grief and anger.

But, before she dies, she prays that one day Narcissus will suffer the same pain of rejection inflicted upon her.

Eventually, one day Narcissus peers into a stream and falls in love with his own reflection, which he first mistakes for another handsome youth.

Realizing it is his own reflection, he grieves that he cannot fully possess that illusion ... and heartbroken, he dies.

Because all topics lead eventually to fragrance, there are two related to this myth ... from the fragrance house of Dorissima: Narziß (tarragon, royal sage, rose, atlas cedar, vetiver, tonka, fig leaves) and Goldmund (tonka beans, vanilla, iris root, rose, powdery carnation, benzoin, sandalwood, soft musk, balsam notes, Peru balsam, allspice), scents that take their name from the Hermann Hesse novel, Narcissus and Goldmund, a fiction derivation of the Narcissus myth.

The fragrances sound beautiful, don't they?

Painting of Echo and Narcissus by John William Waterhouse (1849-1917); text in large part from wikipedia.