The joy of returning to the myth of Echo and Narcissus for Fanny Mendelssohn’s post today reminds me: It takes more than two to create a subjugated relationship. First there are those who have created the imprint to make it possible, and afterward those who perpetuate it.

She still retained her voice, but no longer free,

For Jove had often used her ready tongue,

That she with length of talk might hold the goddess,

While he escaped unseen

—Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book III

Echo and Narcissus by John William Waterhouse, 1903