Bellezza, desiderio, ontologia; una lettura girardiana del mito di Eco e Narciso

Beauty, desire, ontology: a Girardian reading of the Echo and Narcissus myth · This article provides a Girardian re-reading of the Narcissus episode in Ovid’s Metamor- phoses. It also makes explicit in limine the theoretical assumption that (ancient and mod- ern) interpretations of myths are to be considered as substantial additions to the ongoing post-classical life of the myths themselves – non unlike their (ancient and modern) liter- ary manifestations. The general thesis argued here is that the Ovidian episode of Narcissus should not be read as a curious exploration of a paradoxical love dynamic, but as an exem- plary and general illustration of the aporetic features of amorous desire. The first step in this reading is a Girardian analysis of beauty, whose derivation from social dynamics is highlighted. The Narcissus episode is then interpreted in the light of the Girardian con- cept of metaphysical desire. What the lover seeks in the beloved is their own ontological confirmation, relieving them from the condition of structural destitution that they per- ceive from their subjective point of view. Echo falls in love by imitating the many desires of pueri and puellae for Narcissus, just as Narcissus is punished with a love that echoes that of Echo herself. This dynamic allows us to understand the contagious and one-sided path of desire and its main paradox. As a matter of fact, the subject led by amorous impulse strives to attain their own ontological foundation – but they expect this from an Other who is both deified as a metaphysical source of being and reified as an object of desire. The reflected image at the centre of the Narcissus myth should therefore be read as a sign of the ultimately self-reflexive and desperately one-sided character of amorous desire.