Aminias spurned lover of Narcissus.A depiction of Ameinias, sculpted by Malcolm Lidbury for the 2016 Cornwall LGBT History project.
In Greek mythology, Ameinias (Ancient Greek: Ἀμεινίας, romanized: Ameinías) was a young man who fell in love with Narcissus, a handsome hunter from Thespiae in Boeotia, who had already spurned all his other suitors, according to the version of Narcissus's myth by Conon (Narrations, 24).[1]
Mythology
Narcissus also spurned Ameinias and gave him a sword. The latter committed suicide at Narcissus's doorstep after being rejected by him. He had prayed to Nemesis to give Narcissus a lesson for all the pain he provoked. Narcissus walked by a pool of water and decided to drink some. He saw his reflection, became entranced by it, and killed himself because he could not have his object of desire,[2] or gazing endlessly at the image, he slowly pined away and was transformed by the nymphs into a narcissus flower. Others say he was instead filled with remorse for humiliating Ameinias and killed himself beside the pool—and from his dying life's blood the flower was born.[3]
It was said that because of this tragedy, the Thespians came to honor and reverence Eros especially among the gods.[1]
Depictions of Ameinias
The BBC TV series Telling Tales retells the Narcissus myth in a modern setting where Narcissus is a handsome, popular kid at his school and Ameinias is his friend.[4][5]
Conon, Fifty Narrations, surviving as one-paragraph summaries in the Bibliotheca (Library) of Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople, translated from the Greek by Brady Kiesling. Online version at the Topos Text Project.