"The story of Echo and Narcissus is a love story." Do you agree or disagree? Give reasons for your answer

Echo and Narcissus is not a love story. Ovid may be known for his elegiacs on love and courtship, but it is in the Echo and Narcissus episode that his true penchant for sex, wit and amoral punishment come to the forefront.Ovid's dismissal of love in favour of wit is apparent from Echo and Narcissus' first interaction together. Echo is only able to repeat what those before her have said; within the limitations of Echo's situation, Ovid showcases a sophisticated exchange of dialogue that highlights his skill at constructing a conversation: "Who's here?", "Here" she repeated. "Let's come together", "Come together..."With this clever dialogue, Ovid focuses primarily on demonstrating to his reader how balanced the to-and-fro of this couple's relationship is. He is uninterested in the personal reactions of this characters. In fact, his repetition of "come together" (originally, 'comeamus' in the Latin) emphasis he is more interested in being an clever bawdy banterer than anything else ['comeamus' was slang in the ancient world for intercourse].Ultimately, we know the story of Echo and Narcissus is not a tragic love story. Sure, it ends with unrequited desire and the amoral punishment of both individuals at the hands of petty gods. But tragedy and desire does not a love story make. In the same way that Ovid neglects detailing his characters emotions in favour of witty dialogue, in the end, he devotes much more time to his characters demise, than to the impact of their lasting love. Ovid goes into gruesome detail of Narcissus' flesh tearing, blood dripping and wailing voice. None of this is linked at all to his relationship to Echo either. The focus is entirely on his suffering as another example of the gods cruelty to passion driven mortals in the books.In conclusion, Echo and Narcissus is certainly not a love story. Ovid details the relationship between these two characters in depth, but the narrative themes he is interested in are sex, wit and the gods' cruelty. It is far from the romance and beauty of a love story, but in no way less sophisticated in its content, form and imagery that has immortalised the myth for Ovidian readership for 2000 years.