La Nymphe Echo, a marble sculpture created by the French sculptor Paul Lemoyne, immortalized one of the saddest figures in Greek mythology, depicted in a mythical story told by the Roman poet Ovid in his Metamorphoses. In the story, Zeus, the king of the gods, ruling over the sky, thunder, and lightning from his abode on Mount Olympus, is depicted as a fun-loving god, and although he was married to Hera, he loved to frolic with the nymphs and enjoyed their company. However, Hera disliked the frolicsome habit of her husband. She was very jealous and had the habit of often visiting the mountainside, for the purpose of catching her husband enjoying his time with the nymphs. Nevertheless, Zeus was aware of his wife’s intention, and he entrusted Echo, a charming nymph, with the task of delaying Hera in her pursuit, so that she may not find him philandering around with other women. As a result, whenever Hera came close to finding Zeus with the nymphs, Echo stepped across her path, started chatting with her endlessly in a lively fashion and did whatever she could to stall the goddess until Zeus and the other nymphs had enough time to escape. But eventually, Hera discovered that Echo had been purposely tricking her, and cursed her in a fit of rage, deprived Echo of the gift of speech and cursed that she could only repeat the last words spoken by others.

Deprived of the ability to speak and express her feelings, the distressed nymph became sad and restless, and one day, while wandering alone aimlessly in the woods, suddenly saw Narcissus, a handsome young man with golden hair, the son of the river god Cephissus and the nymph Liriope, trudging casually in the forest. Echo was simply taken aback, stunned and amazed by the breathtaking physical beauty of the young man and could not control herself, but fell for him at first sight. She was eager to rush to him and express her love, but she got cold feet, as she was aware of the terrible curse, and her inability to express her feelings. Finally, when Narcissus turned around, caught a glimpse of her, and asked to know who she was, she could only echo his last word 'she'. After a course of short, incoherent and perplexing conversation, when Narcissus wanted to see her, Echo came out from behind the tree and rushed to embrace him. However, Narcissus was not prepared for that, and he rudely shoved her away, as he was an egoist, and broke the heart of numerous beautiful dames like Echo in the past.

Insulted, humiliated and heartbroken, Echo ran away from the scene and took shelter in a cave to hide her face from the world outside, without any food for days together or without a wink of sleep, just pining for Narcissus. Suffering from her unfufilled desire and unrequited love, the beautiful nymph withered, and only a voice remained from her.

Commissioned by the Duke of Berwick and D'Albe, and completed by Paul Lemoyne in 1821, the sculpture, also known as Lemoyne Saint-Paul, was presented at the Paris Salon in 1822 and is now housed in Louvre, officially known as Musée du Louvre in Paris, France.