Echo

I am Echo, a nymph. I am a nymph who is very talkative. I am known to all, actually, for being very talkative, and that is not always a positive quality (being talkative that is). In my lifetime, so many tragedies occurred. The most tragic involved Zeus and Hera and is when I lost the power of the first word. Zeus and I were making love, but Hera had followed Zeus and was very angry with him. Hera knew Zues always went off to make love to others. She was coming to Zeus to talk to him about his behavior, and knowing she was coming, he ran and asked me to keep her busy until he could get away. I could easily do that, since I can talk for long periods of time and speak very quickly. If you didn’t know, when people talk quickly you can get distracted - my job, to distract others, is a job I am very good at since I am so very talkative. I took the responsibility of misdirecting Hera when she confronted me with having an affair with Zeus. I improvised a very long, confusing, and untrue story for her. This kept her busy for a while since I am so talkative. Hera knew she was being deceived by me. She declared I could only repeat the words that those around me spoke. I would have the last word, but never the first. This was not good since then I could not use my best power, talking. This made me so ashamed that I had to isolate myself in the woods.

There I saw the handsome Narcissus with whom I immediately fell in love. I wanted to tell him that I loved him, but with the curse Hera put on me, I could not. He yelled “Is anyone here?” and I answered “Here, here!” He shoved me away and said he would rather die than have me. He looked at his reflection in the stream and fell in love with himself and said “I love you” to his reflection. This was my chance! I quickly replied “love you” but he didn’t hear me. I hurried off crying, and hid in a cave pining for Narcissus. I really miss being talkative. If I got my voice back, I would talk and sing all day so everyone could hear my voice again, but I had my voice taken away forever by Hera.

When I died, not even my bones remained! Some say they were turned to stone. I’m not quite sure myself, but Gaia preserved my voice, and to this day, I still have the last word. This is pleasant since at least I can still talk, even though I can’t be as talkative as I was before. I love being talkative. So wherever you go, you can hear my voice repeating whatever you said previously.