Pygmalion (mythology)

For other uses, seePygmalion (disambiguation).

Pygmalion Adoring His StatuebyJean Raoux,1717

InGreek mythology,Pygmalion(/pɪɡˈmeɪliən/;Ancient Greek:ΠυγμαλίωνPugmalíōn,gen.: Πυγμαλίωνος) was alegendaryfigure ofCyprus.He is most familiar fromOvid'snarrative poemMetamorphoses,in which Pygmalion was a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had carved.

In Ovid

In book 10 ofOvid'sMetamorphoses,Pygmalion was a Cypriot sculptor who carved a woman out of ivory alabaster. Post-classical sources name herGalatea.

According to Ovid, when Pygmalion saw thePropoetidesof Cyprus practicing prostitution, he began "detesting the faults beyond measure which nature has given to women".He determined to remaincelibateand to occupy himself with sculpting. He made a sculpture of a woman that he found so perfect he fell in love with it. Pygmalion kisses and fondles the sculpture, brings it various gifts, and creates a sumptuous bed for it.

In time,Aphrodite's festival day came and Pygmalion made offerings at the altar of Aphrodite. There, too afraid to admit his desire, he quietly wished for a bride who would be "the living likeness of my ivory girl". When he returned home, he kissed his ivory statue, and found that its lips felt warm. He kissed it again, and found that the ivory had lost its hardness. Aphrodite had granted Pygmalion's wish.

Pygmalion married the ivory sculpture, which changed to a woman under Aphrodite's blessing. In Ovid's narrative, they had a daughter, Paphos, from whom is derived the name of thecity.

In some versions, Paphos was a son, and they also had a daughter,Metharme.

Ovid's mention of Paphos suggests that he was drawing on a more circumstantial accountthan the source for a passing mention of Pygmalion in Pseudo-Apollodorus'Bibliotheke,a Hellenic mythography of the 2nd-century AD.Perhaps he drew on the lost narrative byPhilostephanusthat was paraphrased byClement of Alexandria.In the story ofDido,Pygmalion is an evil king.

Parallels in Greek myth

The story of the breath of life in a statue has parallels in the examples ofDaedalus,who usedquicksilverto install a voice in his statues or to make them move; ofHephaestus,who createdautomatafor his workshop; ofTalos,an artificial man of bronze, and (according toHesiod) ofPandora,who was made from clay at the behest ofZeus.

The moral anecdote of the "Apega of Nabis",recounted by the historianPolybius,described a supposed mechanical simulacrum of the tyrant's wife, that crushed victims in her embrace.

Thetropeof a sculpture so life-like that it seemed about to move was a commonplace with writers on works of art in antiquity. This trope was inherited by writers on art after theRenaissance.An example of this trope appears inWilliam Shakespeare's play,The Winter's Tale,where the king of Sicily is presented with an extremely lifelike statue of his wife (which is actually his wife, long presumed dead).

Cultural depictions

The basic Pygmalion story has been widely transmitted and represented in the arts through the centuries. At an unknown date, later authors give as the name of the statue that of the sea-nymphGalateaor Galathea.Goethecalls her Elise, based upon the variants in the story ofDido/Elissa.

A variant of this theme can also be seen in the story ofPinocchio,in which a wooden puppet is transformed into a "real boy", though in this case the puppet possesses sapience prior to its transformation; it is the puppet and not its creator, the woodcarverGeppetto,who beseeches the divine powers for the miracle.

In the final scene ofWilliam Shakespeare'sThe Winter's Tale,a statue of Queen Hermione which comes to life is revealed as Hermione herself, so bringing the play to a conclusion of reconciliations.

InGeorge Bernard Shaw's 1913 playPygmalion,a modern variant of the myth, the underclass flower-girlEliza Doolittleis metaphorically "brought to life" by a phonetics professor, Henry Higgins, who teaches her to refine her accent and conversation and otherwise conduct herself with upper-class manners in social situations. This play in turn inspired a1938 film adaptation,as well as the 1956 musicalMy Fair Ladyand its1964 film adaptation.

The 2007 filmLars and the Real Girltells the story of a man who purchases a doll and treats her as a real person in order to reconnect with the rest of the world. Although she never comes to life, he believes she is real, and in doing so develops more connections to his community. When he no longer needs her, he lets her go. This is a reversal of the myth of Pygmalion.

Étienne Maurice Falconet:Pygmalion et Galatée(1763)

Pygmalion et Galatée byGirodet

Paintings

PygmalionbyJean-Baptiste Regnault,1786, Musée National du Château et des Trianons

Miniature from a 14th-century manuscript of Pygmalion working on his sculpture

The story has been the subject of notable paintings byAgnolo Bronzino,Jean-Léon Gérôme(Pygmalion and Galatea),Honoré Daumier,Edward Burne-Jones(four major works from 1868–1870, then again in larger versions from 1875–1878 with the titlePygmalion and the Image),Auguste Rodin,Ernest Normand,Paul Delvaux,Francisco Goya,Franz von Stuck,François Boucher,Eduardo Chicharro y AgüeraandThomas Rowlandson,among others. There have also been numerous sculptures of the "awakening".

Literature

Ovid's Pygmalion has inspired many works of literature, some of which are listed below. The popularity of the Pygmalion myth surged in the 19th century.

Poems

England

• John Gower's "Pygmaleon and his Statue" in Book 4 of theConfessio Amantis(1390)
• John Marston's "Pigmalion", in "The Argument of the Poem" and "The Authour in prayse of his precedent Poem" (1598)
• John Dryden's poem "Pygmalion and the Statue" (1697–1700)
• Thomas Lovell Beddoes's "Pygmalion, or the Cyprian Statuary" (1823–25)
• William Cox Bennett's poem "Pygmalion" from his workQueen Eleanor's Vengeance and Other Poems(1856)
• Arthur Henry Hallam's poem "Lines Spoken in the Character of Pygmalion" from his workRemains in verse and prose of Arthur Henry Hallam: With a preface and memoir(1863)
• Robert Buchanan's poem "Pygmalion the Sculptor" in his workUndertones(1864)
• William Morris's poem "Earthly Paradise" in which he includes the section "Pygmalion and the Image" (1868)
• William Bell Scott's "Pygmalion"
• Thomas Woolner's long poem "Pygmalion" (1881)
• Frederick Tennyson's "Pygmalion" fromDaphne and Other Poems(1891)
• Robert Graves's "Pygmalion to Galatea" (1926) and "Galatea and Pygmalion"

Scotland

• Andrew Lang's "The New Pygmalion or the Statue's Choice" (1911)
• Carol Ann Duffy's poem "Pygmalion's Bride" (1999)

Ireland

• Emily Henrietta Hickey'sA Sculptor and Other Poems(1881)
• Patrick Kavanagh's "Pygmalion" (1938)
• Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin's "Pygmalion's Image" (1991)

Germany

• Friedrich Schiller's poem "The Ideals" (Die Ideale) (1795-6)

Romania

• Nichita Stănescu's poem "Către Galateea" (Dreptul la timp) (1965)

United States

• Sara Jane Lippincott(Grace Greenwood)'s "Pygmalion" (1851)
• Elizabeth Stuart Phelps' "Galatea" fromHarper's Weekly(1884)
• Edward Rowland Sill's "The Lost Magic" (1900)
• H.D.'s "Pygmalion" (1913–17)
• Genevieve Taggard's "Galatea Again" (1929)
• Katha Pollitt's "Pygmalion" (1979)
• Joseph Brodsky's "Encore" (1983)
• Katherine Solomon's "Galatea" (1999)
• Madeline Miller's "Galatea" (2013)

Nicaragua

• Claribel Alegría's "Galatea Before the Mirror" (1993)

Short stories

• Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "The Birth-Mark"and his similar novella,Rappaccini's Daughter.
• H.P. Lovecraft's "Herbert West–Reanimator"
• Tommaso Landolfi's "La moglie di Gogol" ('The Wife of Gogol')
• John Updike's "Pygmalion"
• E. T. A. Hoffmann's "The Sandman"
• Jorge Luis Borges's "Las Ruinas Circulares"(Argentina)
• Isaac Asimov's short storyGalatea(in his collectionAzazelis a parody of the story, where a woman sculptor sculpts her idea of the ideal man)
• Madeline Miller's short story 'Galatea'

Novels and plays

• William Hazlitt'sLiber Amoris: or, the New Pygmalion(1823)
• Lloyd C. Douglas's novel "Invitation To Live" (1940)
• Richard Powers's novelGalatea 2.2
• Amanda Filipacchi's novelVapor
• Edith Wharton'sHouse of Mirth
• Henry James'Portrait of a Lady(1880–81)
• George MacDonald'sPhantastes
• George Bernard Shaw's playPygmalion
• Edgar Neville's playProhibido en otoño.
• Tawfiq el-Hakim's playPygmalion
• William Schwenck Gilbert's playPygmalion and Galatea
• Willy Russell's playEducating Rita
• Rousseau's playPygmalion, scène lyrique,the first fullmelodrama
• Villiers de l'Isle-Adam's novelTomorrow's Eve
• Jacinto Grau's play El Señor de Pigmalión (1921)
• William Shakespeare's playTheWinter's Tale(1611)

Other

• Pete Wentz's comic seriesFall Out Toy Works
• Grant Morrison'sProfessor Pyg,who appears inBatman and Robin
• Dr.William Moulton Marstondrew inspiration from the Galatea and Pygmalion myth in creating his allegorical myth ofWonder Woman's clay birth, withHippolytebeing in the "Pygmalion" role sculpting her daughterWonder Woman(as the "Galatea" ) from clay and given life by Aphrodite's breath. It was Marston's intention to express the creative power of a mother's love for a child and thatWonder Womanis the product of her mother's rearing, and therefore personifying much of her mother's qualities of independence, self sufficiency, strength of character, non-limiting beliefs, etc.

Opera, ballet, and music

• The story of Pygmalion is the subject ofJean-Philippe Rameau's 1748 opera,Pigmalion.
• It was also the subject ofGeorg Benda's 1779monodrama,Pygmalion.
• Ramler's poemPygmalionwas set to music as an aria byJ.C.F.Bachin 1772, and as acantatabyFriedrich Bendain 1784.
• Pygmalion was the subject ofGaetano Donizetti's first opera,Il Pigmalione.
• Fromental Halévywrote an operaPygmalionin the 1820s, but it was not performed.
• Franz von Suppécomposed an operettaDie schöne Galathée,which is based on the characters of Pygmalion andGalatea.
• The balletCoppélia,about an inventor who makes a life-sized dancing doll, has strong echoes of Pygmalion.
• The choreographerMarius Petipaand the composer Prince Nikita Trubetskoi created a four-act ballet on the subject calledPygmalion, ou La Statue de Chypre.The ballet was revived in 1895 with the great ballerinaPierina Legnani.
• BritishshoegazebandSlowdivenamed their third LPPygmalionin 1995.
• Kahimi Karie's 2000 EP "Journey To The Centre Of Me" contains the song "Pygmalism".
• The song "Trial By Fire" by darkwave/gothic bandThouShaltNotrecreates the idea of a modern-day Pygmalion with lyrics such as "I sculpt your nature within, I am your Pygmalion" and "I dust away the plaster from off your breathing body...You'll never be the same."
• Lunatic Soul's 2014 albumWalking on a Flashlight Beamincludes the track "Pygmalion's Ladder".
• The progressive house artist Hellberg (Jonathan Hellberg) released a song called 'The Girl' featuring vocalistCozi Zuehlsdorffin 2015. They have both admitted to having been inspired by the Pygmalion myth when creating the track.
• WonderboundBallet Company in Denver, Colorado premiered the piece"Patterns"in 2018 as part of their work Aphrodite's Switchboard. The piece centers on a reinterpretation of the Pygmalion story in which Aphrodite falls in love with Pygmalion's sculpture herself.
• My Fair Ladystage musical
• Musical projectThe Scary Jokes's third albumBurn Pygmalion!!! A Better Guide to Romance(2019) and the track "Pygmalion" references the myth through its titles and themes. The song takes on a more critical view of the story, with the character Pygmalion being used as an allegory for an abuser who manipulates a romantic partner into changing themselves.
• South Korean bandPentagon's 2022 mini album's title track "Feelin' Like" is based on the Pygmalion story, centered on the moment Galatea awakens.
• South Korean bandOneus's 9th mini album is titled Pygmalion. The album features songs loosely related to the Greek figure and myth.

Stage plays

W. S. Gilbert's stage version, 1871

Though it is not based on the story of Pygmalion, Shakespeare's playMeasure for Measurereferences Pygmalion in a line spoken by Lucio in Act 3, Scene 2: "What, is there none of Pygmalion's images, newly made woman, to be had now, for putting the hand in the pocket and extracting it clutch'd?"

There have also been successful stage-plays based upon the work, such asW. S. Gilbert'sPygmalion and Galatea(1871). It was revived twice, in 1884 and in 1888. The play was parodied by the musical 1883 burlesqueGalatea, or Pygmalion Reversed,which was performed at theGaiety Theatrewith a libretto byHenry Pottinger StephensandW. Webster,and a score composed byWilhelm Meyer Lutz.

In January, 1872,Ganymede and Galateaopened at theGaiety Theatre.This was a comic version ofFranz von Suppé'sDie schöne Galathee,coincidentally withArthur Sullivan's brother,Fred Sullivan,in the cast.

In March 1872,William Brough's1867 playPygmalion; or, The Statue Fairwas revived, and in May of that year, a visiting French company producedVictor Massé'sGalathée.

George Bernard Shaw'sPygmalion(1912, staged 1913) owes something to both the Greek Pygmalion and the legend of "KingCophetuaand the beggar maid "; in which a king lacks interest in women, but one day falls in love with a young beggar-girl, later educating her to be his queen. Shaw'scomedy of mannersin turn was the basis for theBroadway musicalMy Fair Lady(1956), as well as numerous other adaptations.

P. L. Deshpande's playTi Fulrani( "Queen of Flowers" ) is also based on Shaw'sPygmalion.The play was a huge success inMarathitheater and has earned many accolades.Madhu RyeadaptedPygmalionin Gujarati asSantu Rangili(1976) which was successful.

Television

• The Man from U.N.C.L.E.3rd-season episode "The Galatea Affair" from 1966 is a spoof ofMy Fair Lady.A crude barroom entertainer (Joan Collins) is taught to behave like a lady.Noel Harrison,son ofRex Harrison,star of theMy Fair Ladyfilm, is the guest star.
• The Japanese anime seriesBubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040includes a character namedGalatea,an artificial life form designed to be the next evolution of the human race.
• In Disney'sHercules: The Animated Series,Pygmalion was Hercules' art teacher. His success in crafting a perfect wife for himself prompted Hercules to do the same to create a date for a school dance, naming her Galatea.
• The science-fiction franchise Star Trek explores the Pygmalion theme in episodes suchStar Trek: The Next Generation's "Inheritance"(Episode 7x10), where Data's creatorDr. Soongconstructs a female android to replace his deceased wife, andStar Trek: The Original Series'"Requiem for Methuselah"(Episode 3x19), where an immortal human builds a presumably immortal android as a life partner.The character ofData,himself an android "sculpted" by man and his longing to become more "human," are a recurrent arc of the series.
• The 1897 flashback of the Gothic TV serialDark Shadowsincludes a painter, Charles Delaware Tate (portrayed byRoger Davis), whose portraits come to life. The character of Amanda Harris is one of Tate's creations, falling in love withQuentin Collins.
• In the TV seriesGothaminseason 4the run into a bad guy that calls himself "The Pyg". He says "I spell it with a y because it’s short for Pygmalion."
• In the TV seriesKing of the Hill's season 7 episode 9 "Pigmalion", Luanne dates a wealthy pork supplier who attempts to model her after the woman on his company's logo.

Films

• Pygmalion(1935 film),a German film based on the George Bernard Shaw play
• Pygmalion(1937 film),a Dutch film based on the George Bernard Shaw play
• Pygmalion(1938 film),a British film starringLeslie HowardandWendy Hiller
• Pygmalion(1948 TV play),a British television play starringMargaret Lockwood
• Surjo Konna,a Bangladeshi film based on Pygmalion starringBulbul Ahmed
• Pygmalion(1983 film),a television film starringPeter O'TooleandMargot Kidder
• Alfred Hitchcock'sVertigo(1958) is a variation on the Pygmalion theme.
• The comedy movieMannequin(1987) is based on Pygmalion.
• My Fair Lady(film),a 1964 American musical film, starringRex HarrisonandAudrey Hepburn.
• Bicentennial Man(film),a 1999 American science fiction comedy-drama film starringRobin WilliamsandSam Neill,is based on a story byIsaac Asimov,featuring a female android named Galatea.
• She's All That,a 1999 film directed by Robert Iscove, is a variation on the Pygmalion theme, set in a high school.
• Life-Size,a 2000 American fantasy-comedy television film directed byMark Rosmanand starringLindsay LohanandTyra Banks.It originally premiered on March 5, 2000 on ABC as part of The Wonderful World of Disney block. The film follows a young girl whose Eve doll is transformed into a real person. Asequelwas released in 2018.
• Ruby Sparks,a 2012 American comedy-drama film where a writer writes his dream woman with a magic typewriter and she comes to life starringPaul DanoandZoe Kazan
• Ex Machina,a 2012 British science fiction film, contains Pygmalion themes, although is ultimately a reversal of the 'perfect creation' trope.

Interactive fiction

• The text adventureGalatea,byEmily Short,is based on the myth of Galatea.
• In the interactive science fiction novel Choice of Robots, by Kevin Gold, it is possible to create a lifelike human robot with whom the protagonist can fall in love. One of the default name options for this robot is Galatea.

Audio drama/podcasts

• One of the protagonists ofscience fiction/horrorpodcast Dining In The Void is a model named Galatea Ivory, known for her white skin and unparalleled beauty.One of her main arcs in the show revolves around her physical beauty and how it gets compromised by the show's villain Jo. In episode six, "Aligning Their Goals," Galatea reveals that her manager is called Pygmalion and that he sometimes tells her to "be quiet" on set. However, she defends him when Aveline Lion asks if that's controlling by saying he's looking out for her career.

See also

• Agalmatophilia
• Golem
• Hidari Jingorō
• Narcissus
• Pinocchio
• Prometheus
• Pygmalion and the Imageseries
• Pygmalion effect
• Pygmalion of Tyre
• Uncanny valley
• Waifu

Further reading

• Burnham, Jack.Beyond Modern Sculpture(1982). Allan Lane. A history of 'living statues' and the fascination with automata—see the introductory chapter: "Sculpture and Automata".
• Buschor, Ernst.Vom Sinn der griechischen Standbilder(1942). Clear discussion of attitudes to sculptural images in classical times.
• Ciofalo, John J. (December 1995). "Unveiling Goya's Rape of Galatea".Art History,pp. 477–98.
• Ciofalo, John J. (2001). "The Art of Sex and Violence: The Sex and Violence of Art".The Self-Portraits of Francisco Goya.Cambridge University Press.
• d'Huy, Julien (2012). "Le motif de Pygmalion: origine afrasienne et diffusion en Afrique".Sahara.23. pp. 49–58.
• d'Huy, Julien (2013). "Il y a plus de 2000 ans, le mythe de Pygmalion existait en Afrique du nord".Préhistoires Méditerranéennes.
• Danahay, Martin A. (1994). "Mirrors of Masculine Desire: Narcissus and Pygmalion in Victorian Representation".Victorian Poetry.No. 32. pp. 35–53.
• Gross, Kenneth. (1992).The Dream of the Moving Statue.Cornell University Press. (A wide-ranging survey of 'living statues' in literature and the arts).
• Hersey, George L. (2009). "Falling in love with statues: artificial humans from Pygmalion to the present", Chicago, 2009,ISBN978-0-226-32779-2
• Almost Human: Puppets, Dolls and Robots in Contemporary Art,Hunterdon Museum of Art, Clinton, New Jersey. 2005. (Catalogue for a group exhibition March 20 – June 12, 2005.)
• Joshua, Essaka (2001).Pygmalion and Galatea: The History of a Narrative inEnglish Literature.Ashgate.
• Law, Helen H. (Feb. 1932). "The Name Galatea in the Pygmalion Myth",The Classical Journal,Vol. 27 No. 5. Published by The Classical Association of the Middle West and South,JSTOR3290617.
• Marshall, Gail. (1998).Actresses on the Victorian Stage: Feminine Performance and the Galatea Myth.Cambridge University Press.
• Morford, Mark. (2007). "Classical Mythology Eighth Edition". Oxford University Press
• Shanken, Edward A. (2005). "https://web.archive.org/web/20060622174528/http://artexetra.com/Hot2Bot.pdfHot 2 Bot: Pygmalion's Lust, the Maharal's Fear, and the Cyborg Future of Art] ",Technoetic Arts3:1: 43–55.
• Wettlaufer, Alexandra K. (2001).Pen Vs. Paintbrush: Girodet, Balzac, and the Myth of Pygmalion in Post-Revolutionary France.Palgrave Macmillan.

External links

• English translation of Ovid's poemby Sir Samuel Garth, John Dryden, et al.
• English translation of Ovid's poemArchived2010-01-16 at theWayback Machine
• Latin original, lines 243–297,atThe Latin Library.com
• Shakespeare reference
• The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Pygmalion)