In the Greek myth, a young man, Narcissus, was punished by the gods for spurning someone's consuming romantic attraction (innamorato in the Greek version, innamorata in the Roman.) He was guided to a pond and he looked into the water and saw his own reflection. He was awed and entranced by his beauty, and because he could not possibly attain the object of his desire, he died of sorrow (or killed himself) as he gazed at his reflection.
In the Gemara (Nedarim 9b), we have the following story:
אמר <רבי> שמעון הצדיק מימי לא אכלתי אשם נזיר טמא אלא אחד פעם אחת בא אדם אחד נזיר מן הדרום וראיתיו שהוא יפה עינים וטוב רואי וקווצותיו סדורות לו תלתלים אמרתי לו בני מה ראית להשחית את שערך זה הנאה אמר לי רועה הייתי לאבא בעירי הלכתי למלאות מים מן המעיין ונסתכלתי בבבואה שלי ופחז עלי יצרי ובקש לטורדני מן העולם אמרתי לו רשע למה אתה מתגאה בעולם שאינו שלך במי שהוא עתיד להיות רמה ותולעה העבודה שאגלחך לשמים מיד עמדתי ונשקתיו על ראשו אמרתי לו בני כמוך ירבו נוזרי נזירות בישראל עליך הכתוב אומר (במדבר ו) איש כי יפליא לנדור נדר נזיר להזיר לה'
There was once a young man who saw his reflection in the water, and he realized how extraordinarily handsome he was. His Yetzer Hara suddenly assailed him and attempted to drive him away from this world. He said "Villain! Of what are you so proud in a world that is not yours, of a body that is fated to decompose into mold and vermin? I swear by the Holy Worship of the Temple that I will shave you bald in service of Heaven" and thus declared himself a Nazir. The story of his nezirus was presented by Shimon the Kohen Gadol as the ideal, the paragon, of holy Nezirus.
Each of of these stories teaches us that vanity and excessive love of self is destructive. Despite the superficial similarity, the subtexts of the two stories are diametrically opposed.
In the Greek version, Narcissus' fate was sealed because he displeased the gods by spurning someone who loved, or lusted after, him; his refusal caused the other to suffer the pain of unsatisfied desire. The Greek version does not contemplate the option of asceticism in dealing with sensual urges; His "selfish" refusal to gratify his lover's desire was punished by making him feel what his disconsolate lover felt, and this sealed his doom. In the story of the Nazir, the impulses engendered by his amazement at his beauty were countered by recognizing the infantilism and self-destructiveness of those feelings, with the life-saving antidote of becoming a Nazir. But most importantly, in the Greek story, the tragedy is the unwillingness to satisfy desire, and the punishment came through the creation of a desire that was impossible to satisfy. In the Jewish story, satisfying desire would have been the tragedy, and the triumph was overcoming desire.
In the Greek version, Narcissus' fate was sealed because he displeased the gods by spurning someone who loved, or lusted after, him; his refusal caused the other to suffer the pain of unsatisfied desire. The Greek version does not contemplate the option of asceticism in dealing with sensual urges; His "selfish" refusal to gratify his lover's desire was punished by making him feel what his disconsolate lover felt, and this sealed his doom. In the story of the Nazir, the impulses engendered by his amazement at his beauty were countered by recognizing the infantilism and self-destructiveness of those feelings, with the life-saving antidote of becoming a Nazir. But most importantly, in the Greek story, the tragedy is the unwillingness to satisfy desire, and the punishment came through the creation of a desire that was impossible to satisfy. In the Jewish story, satisfying desire would have been the tragedy, and the triumph was overcoming desire.
(Please note that the comparison is not really fair to Greek culture. The gods imagined by the Greeks were just magnified humans, and often libidinous and vindictive. They certainly were not thought of as role models, in most cases. Still and all, I think that the similarities and contrasts between the two stories are instructive on a deep level.)
I got a letter from a friend who said this over in his shiur, and one of the listeners immediately remarked "so narcissus was punished for being chaste while being chased"
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