Narcissus

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Narcissus is evoked by Dante in Canto XXX of the Inferno, where Master Adam reproaches Sinon for his thirst by comparing it to the punishment of one who licks the mirror in which Narcissus contemplated himself. The authorized note to verse 128 clarifies that "the mirror of Narcissus" is to be understood as the water in which the mythological character gazed at his reflection, falling in love with the face he saw mirrored there. The source adds no further details about the figure, limiting itself to clarifying the identification of the object designated by the Dantesque expression. The note provides no information about any active presence of Narcissus in the infernal scene, which is thus confined to the single allusive reference contained in the verse.