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Definition
Greek mythology: a handsome young man who fell in love with his own reflection- like Narcissus gazing in a pool
- Narcissus does not fall in love with his reflection because it is beautiful, but because it is his. If it were his beauty that enthralled him, he would be set free in a few years by its fading.W. H. Auden
- He came back witha single narcissus.William Faulkner -- The Sound and the Fury
- "I guess it takes a lot of narcissus to spell Catherine," Virgie called, when Cassie still did not pass her.Eudora Welty -- The Golden Apples
- He noticed particularly in the windows nosegays of tender, white, heavily fragrant narcissus bending over their bright, green, thick long stalks.Fyodor Dostoyevsky -- Crime and Punishment
- "I guess it takes a lot of narcissus to spell Catherine," Virgie called, when Cassie still did not pass her.Eudora Welty -- The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty
- He could see his own reflection in a tiny pool edged with moss and lilypads, and he looked at himself for a moment, as fascinated as Narcissus.Stephen King -- The Gunslinger
- Now you have mistaken me for Narcissus.Rick Riordan -- The Blood of Olympus
- Then up and up over a forest path and a gorge—then again up a hill that became solid with narcissus, from passengers to sky.F. Scott Fitzgerald -- Tender is the Night
- What was important was that it was a bright, sunny day; her first narcissus were in bloom, and the daffodils behind them were already showing flower buds.Nevil Shute -- On the Beach
- There would be the smell of crushed narcissus on the sidewalk and lights shining from the night tables of second-story windows.Pat Conroy -- The Lords of Discipline
- Go, get thee hence: Hadst thou Narcissus in thy face, to me Thou wouldst appear most ugly.William Shakespeare -- Antony and Cleopatra
- Her T-shirt read: MRS. NARCISSUS.Rick Riordan -- The Mark of Athena
- The common herd is an old Narcissus who adores himself, and who applauds the vulgar herd.Victor Hugo -- Les Miserables
- "Porthos, you are as vain as Narcissus; I plainly tell you so," replied Aramis.Alexandre Dumas -- The Three Musketeers
- Why, my dear Basil, he is a Narcissus, and you—well, of course you have an intellectual expression, and all that.Oscar Wilde -- The Picture of Dorian Gray
- This is the stage of Narcissus looking into the pool, of the Buddha sitting contemplative under the tree, but it is not the ultimate goal; it is a requisite step, but not the end.Joseph Campbell -- The Hero With a Thousand Faces
- And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting, mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned.Herman Melville -- Moby Dick
- The watery images may further portend disaster in recalling the myth of Narcissus, who, falling in love with his reflection in the water, attempted to join it and so drowned.Thomas C. Foster -- How to Read Literature Like a Professor
- Angelo, then, evil Duke of Squamuglia, has perhaps ten years before the play's opening murdered the good Duke of adjoining Faggio, by poisoning the feet on an image of Saint Narcissus.Thomas Pynchon -- The Crying of Lot 49