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| Page Views: 12,071 | The Myth behind my Name by sinequanon - last update: Feb 18, 2006 |
This is a myth about a man who created the woman he wanted.
The myth has given inspiration to many artists throughout the ages. From paintings to sculpture to plays to poetry, to films and even to video games!
Here you can read the original text by Roman poet Ovid as it appears in his work Metamorphoses. |
| The Heart Desires, by Edward Burne-Jones |
|  | The Story of Pygmalion and Galatea by Ovid ... the loathsome Propoetides, dared to deny the divinity of Venus. As a result of this, they were visited by the wrath of the goddess, and were the first women to lose their good names by prostituting themselves in public. Then, as all sense of shame left them, the blood hardened in their cheeks, and it required only a slight alteration to transform them into stony flints.
When Pygmalion saw these women, living such wicked lives, he was revolted by the many faults which nature has implanted in the female sex, and long lived a bachelor existence, with out any wife to share his home. But meanwhile, with marvelous artistry, he skillfully carved a snowy ivory statue. He made it lovelier than any woman born, and he fell in love with his own creation. The statue had all the appearance of a real girl, so that it seemed to be alive, to want to move, did not modesty forbid. So cleverly did his art conceal its art. |
| The Hand Refrains, Edward Burne-Jones |
| | Pygmalion gazed in wonder, and in his heart there rose a passionate love for this image of a human form. He dressed the limbs of his statue in woman?s robes, and put rings on its fingers, long necklaces round its neck. Pearls hug from its ears, and chains were looped upon its breast. All this finery became the image as well, but it was no less lovely unadorned. Pygmalion then placed the statue on a couch that was covered with cloths of Tyrian purple, laid its head to rest on soft down pillows, as if it could appreciate them, and called it his bedfellow. |
| The Godhead Fires, Edward Burne-Jones |
| | Often he ran his hands over the work, feeling to see whether it was flesh or ivory, and would not yet admit that ivory was all it was. He kissed the statue, and imagined that it kissed him back, spoke to it and embraced it, and thought he felt his fingers sink into the limbs he touched, so that he was afraid lest a bruise appear where he had pressed the flesh. Sometimes he addressed it in flattering speeches, sometimes brought the kind of presents that girls enjoy: shells and polished pebbles, little birds and flowers of a thousand hues, lilies and painted balls, and drops of amber which fall from the trees that were once Phaethon's sisters. |
| The Soul Attains, Edward Burne-Jones |
| | The festival of Venus, which is celebrated with the greatest pomp all through Cyprus, was now in progress, and heifers, their crooked horns gilded for the occasion, had fallen at the alter as the axe struck their snowy necks. Smoke was rising from the incense, when Pygmalion, having made his offering, stood by the alter and timidly prayed, saying: "If you gods can give all things, may I have as my wife, I pray--" he did not dare say: "the ivory maiden," but finished: "one like the ivory maid." However, golden Venus, present at her festival in person, understood what his prayers meant, and as a sign that the gods were kindly disposed, the flames burned up three times, shooting a tongue of fire into the air. |
| | When Pygmalion returned home, he made straight for the statue of the girl he loved, leaned over the couch, and kissed her. She seemed warm: he laid his lips on hers again, and touched her breast with his hands--at his touch the ivory lost its hardness, and grew soft: his fingers made an imprint on the yielding surface, just as wax of Hymettus melts in the sun and, worked by men's fingers, is fashioned into many different shapes, and made fit for use by being used. The lover stood, amazed, afraid of being mistaken, his joy tempered with doubt, and again and again stroked the object of his prayers. It was indeed a human body! The veins throbbed as he pressed them with his thumb. |
| Pygmalion and Galatea by Jean-Leon Gerome |
| | Then Pygmalion of Paphos was eloquent in his thanks to Venus. At long last, he pressed his lips upon living lips, and the girl felt the kisses he gave her, and blushed. Timidly raising her eyes, she saw her lover and the light of day together. The goddess Venus was present at the marriage she had arranged and, when the moon's horns had nine times been rounded into a full circle, Pygmalion's bride bore a child, Paphos, from whom the island takes its name.... |
| Pygmalion & Galatea by Louis Jean-Francois Lagrene |
| | George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion" In 1913, Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw adapted the myth to modern-day England and used his play about a phonetics professor's efforts to refine the speech and manner of a cockney flower girl for life among the gentry as a platform for social critique, demonstrating the artificiality of class distinctions in turn-of-the-century British society. In 1956, songwriters Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe musicalized Shaw's "Pygmalion," and when film producer Jack L. Warner saw the Broadway premiere of MY FAIR LADY, he immediately began making plans for the most lavish movie musical in the history of Warner Bros.
see now if you have got the facts right!Pygmalion-Galatea |
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Princess_Emily Tue Sep 1, 2009 15:39 UTC
Happy 1st of September. There are still a few days of summer to be enjoyed, so get up and get going :-) umm looks like your already gone. | Sharon Wed Jan 28, 2009 18:40 UTC
Happy Belated birthday Galatea ! Hope you had a good one and wishing you a great year :-) (Sorry for being late). | aadil Mon Jan 19, 2009 17:41 UTC
A belated but very Happy Birthday to you!!! Bravo!!! You sure are a brave damsel to save all those birds & give them the gift of freedom!! We need more people like you on this planet!! May all your travel & birdwatching dreams come true!! | TheView Fri Jan 16, 2009 23:40 UTC
Tillykke med fødselsdagen :-D I hope you have a great new year ahead of you .. kisss and hugisss Allan |
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