Narcissus in Popular Culture
Today’s world has derived much of its beliefs and terms from Greek mythology and this is no different in the case of Narcissus. Narcissus was a character in Greek mythology that was in love with his own reflection and that ultimately caused his death. Today, narcissist means much of the same in that a person is in love with themselves although this love will most likely not be their ultimate demise. Narcissism today can be seen in much of the popular culture through certain things that are seen in the everyday world and through film, music and literature.
Originally Narcissus was the Greek mythology character who when he died left a flower in his place of his body. This flower today we know as the Narcissus flower, which is much like a daffodil but has a vibrantly colored center instead of the yellow center found in a daffodil. The Roman Empire also saw figures named Narcissus, first with Tiberius Claudius Narcissus, who was the secretary to the Roman emperor Claudius. Claudius also had another Narcissus on his staff and this was Narcissus, the wrestler and professional assassin of the emperor. The Royal Navy also had a fleet of six ships named HMS Narcissus. Today, you can also see the name through the JavaScript engine Narcissus.
Narcissus has also appeared in many films including a lifeboat that was named after the mythical character in the series of Aliens films. Tugboat Annie is a story appearing in film, magazines, and television and the tugboat in the story is also named Narcissus. Norman McLaren also produced a short film named Narcissus in 1983 and another film of the same name was released in 1956 by Ben Moore and Willard Maas.
Two famous paintings have been based on Narcissus. The first is the painting titled Narcissus by Caravaggio, the Italian Baroque. Today the painting sits in the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte in Rome. The second painting was done by John William Waterhouse and is titled Echo and Narcissus. Narcissus has been found in other art such as music as well. Saxophonist Joe Henderson composed the piece Black Narcissus and Ethelbert Woodbridge Nevin created a piano piece titled Narcissus. Composer Gottfried Heinrich Stolzel also created an opera called Narcissus. More recently Alanis Morissette included on her album Under Rug Swept a song titled Narcissus.
Narcissus has also been written about extensively in literature and the name has been applied to many books and characters. In 1916 Viola Meynell wrote a novel called Narcissus. In 1939, Black Narcissus was written by Rumer Godden and it is from this book that the 1947 film adaptation was taken from. The very popular Harry Potter books also had a character in them that was named Narcissa Malfoy. In 1897 Joseph Conrad wrote The Nigger of Narcissus and there has also been a visual novel released called Narcissa.
It’s easy to see that the myth of Narcissus can be seen today in popular culture and because it’s now such a widely used term, it’s unlikely that the term will ever fade out of the vocabulary of people today.
