[HPforGrownups] Narcissa

[Odile Falaise]

No: HPFGUIDX 78509

--- entropymail <entropymail at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I've often wondered about Narcissa's relationship to
> Lily and Petunia.
> I know she's on the tapestry with Andromeda and
> Bellatrix, but I've
> always felt that JKR was giving us some kind of clue
> regarding
> Narcissa because her name, like the sisters Lily and
> Petunia, is that
> of a flower.  No one else in the wizarding world
> seems to be named
> this way.  
> 

Now Odile (c'est moi):

Whee!  A chance to post about one of my favorite
characters!  Yes, Narcissa/Narcissus *is* a flower. I
admit to being a wee bit annoyed whenever I see her
name etymology linked only to the myth of Narcissus. 
Oh, well.  Here are a couple of links (the second one
has a picture):
http://www.botany.com/narcissi.html
http://www.flowers.org.uk/flowers/facts/k-r/narcissus.htm

And according to the Penguin Dictionary of Symbols, p.
695:
"...connection of this flower with the cults of the
Underworlds... Narcissi were planted on graves.  They
symbolize the numbness of death, but of a death which
is perhaps no more than a sleep."

How. Cool. Is. That.

But wait!  There's more!  (Fanfic authors take note?):

on p. 696: "...relates to the symbolism of water and
the seasonal cycle, and in consequence to fertility. 
This is the meaning of its ambivalence - death, sleep,
rebirth."

And:

"Persephone was drugged with the scent of Narcissi
when Hades, enraptured by love of her beauty, seized
the girl and carried her off to the Underworld."

Entropymail continued:
> Can it ba a clue that she may be somehow related to
> Lily, or could it
> possibly be a clue that she is simply a Deatheater
> counterpart of
> Lily's, the way Harry and Draco seem to be
> light/dark counterparts?
> 

Great observation.  Mwahahahaha.  ^_~