Tuesday, March 17, 2009

5t story of Narcissus and Echo;

Ursula awoke early and made herself presentable appropriately. She shook the crackers out of the bed clothes, and soon brought Sam a cup of hot chocolate. He had finally talked her into killing an animal for food purposes, and she had payed him back by bringing to his attention that neither of them knew what was in season. He had been willing to shell any number of clams for the equipment, but this had not become necessary. "Why do some hunting seasons start with a bow season before the regular long-rifle session Sam?" asked Ursula. "Well, it's kind of like the reasons we pay Park Rangers. If you used a Gatling gun, you could probably kill as many Deer as a Trawler can trawl fish, so they give every body who really needs the food a head start. There's a story they tell, just to show the historical value of the Bow and Arrow." "Wait, wait, Don't tell me..." she replied. "Does it have to do with the Greek Goddess Diana, the Huntress?" Sam pondered that the answer was negative for a moment, and said "No, I guess that just has to do with dating."

"It IS a Greek story though. It goes like this: [In the forest of Greek myth, there was a young man by the name of Narcissus. He made all the nymphs swoon, and was very handsome. One nymph in particular was more in love with him than the others. Her name was Echo. Echo enlisted the good offices of Cupid to shoot him with the arrow of love, so that the first thing he saw after that would rule his love and affections forever. This was against her ruler’s wishes. When Cupid and Echo implemented their plan, Echo was ready. Narcissus was walking along in the forest, all unsuspecting. Cupid shot Narcissus, and Echo stepped out from behind a tree, but Narcissus (instead of looking at Echo,) saw his own reflection mirrored in a pool of water and fell deeply, madly in love with himself. Echo’s ruler discovered the plot, and punished her by magically ruling that Echo could no longer voice her own thoughts, but only the last word another said. In a bitter sweet ending, this gave Narcissus and Echo a kind of dysfunctional relationship. Echo repeated Narcissus’ last word to him, and he extended his love for himself to Echo, because she never failed to stroke his ego that way.]"

Ursula had been riveted in rapt attention. "Is that why aboriginal Americans used to love the Bow and Arrow so much?" she asked. "I'm not sure if it started out that way," Sam replied sagely, "but it's why they still do." The eggs were ready, and he praised her cooking with a full mouth.

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