Why does Coelho open with the modified myth of Narcissus? How does the new version differ from the original one? How does it change the myths...

Coelho's
opening with a revised version of the Narcissus myth invites us, as the story begins, to be open
to seeing the world from a new perspective.

In the original myth, Narcissus
is beautiful and proud. One day, he sees himself reflected in a pool of water. He doesn't
realize he is seeing an image of himself and falls in love with it, believing it to be somebody
else. Eventually, he dies of longing and is turned into the flower called narcissus.

In Coelho's retelling, this judgmental tale of self love punished is turned around. We
see Narcissus from the point of view of the pool of water. The pool mourns Narcissus's death
because his beauty, reflected in the pond, was a gift to it. The message is that we all have
gifts we bestow without even knowing it. In a book that dwells on the positivediscovering and
embracing your own Personal Legendthis positive retelling of an old myth sets a tone that asks
us to rethink what we think we know and to be open to possibility and the life...