John Clapham (historian and poet) to Katherine Duncan-Jones' summary, "it locates the Narcissus myth in England, the 'Fortunate Island', presided over by a Virgin Queen. In a palace in a wood Love proffers Ovidian advice to Narcissus about how to win over the woman he loves, however moody she may be. But Narcissus is carried off on a galloping horse called 'blind Lust', falls in love with the nymph Echo, and after a frustrating dialogue with her is soon drowned in the river of Self-Love and metamorphosed into the yellow flower that still bears his name." Most academic interest in the work derives from its
Pygmy (Greek mythology) Pygmy (Greek mythology) The Pygmies ( "Pygmaioi", from the adjective πυγμαῖος from πυγμή "pygmē", "the length of the forearm") were a tribe of diminutive humans in Greek mythology. According to the Iliad, they were involved in a constant war with the cranes, which migrated in winter to their homeland on the southern shores of the earth-encircling river Oceanus. One story describes the origin of the age-old battle, speaking of a Pygmy Queen named Gerana who offended the goddess Hera with her boasts of superior beauty, and was transformed into a crane. In art the scene was popular with little Pygmies