A narcissist is defined as a person who has an excessive interest or admiration of themselves.
The word comes from Narcissus, a hunter who was the son of the river god Cephissus and the nymph Liriope. He was extremely handsome and attractive and many people would fall in love with him. However, he always turned them away in disgust and contempt. Echo, an Oread nymph or a mountain nymph, saw him one day hunting and fell in love with him. After some time, she revealed herself to him when he sensed that there was someone following him. She tried to hug him, only to have him push her off of him in repulsion. He told her not to bother him anymore, and in despair, Echo roamed the woods for the rest of her life and wilted away until she was just an echo sound. She was cursed previously by Hera, doomed to repeat the last words of what anyone said -- thus, where the word Echo comes from.
Nemesis, the goddess of retribution and revenge, discovered what had happened and decided to punish Narcissus for his behavior. She led Narcissus to a beautiful, clear lake, where he immediately fell in love with his own reflection in the water. There are two versions of his death, with the first being that he realized that it was just a reflection, fell into a despondent state that his love couldn’t materialize, and eventually committed suicide. The other version of his death is that he didn’t ever leave the lake and eventually faded into a flower called Narcissus, more commonly known as the daffodil.
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