Pygmalion from Bulfinchs Mythology

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Then, at a festival for Aphrodite, he prays that the goddess will give him a wife just like his statue. She decides to do him one better and actually bring his statue to life.

How It (Supposedly) Went Down

The statue becomes a real woman, and she and Pygmalion get married and have two children. Home Mythology Pygmalion Summary. These ladies are rather uppity, and they refuse to acknowledge that Aphrodite is a goddess.

This, predictably, doesn't fly with Aphrodite. As punishment, she robs the women of their sense of shame, and… they begin to prostitute themselves. The sculptor Pygmalion sees these women doing their thing and is totally grossed out by their behavior. Oh, a few authors say that Pygmalion was also the King of Cyprus, but most limit him to being a sculptor. Anyway, he's so disgusted by the Propoetides that he vows to ignore all women forever. That seems kind of rash, but hey—to each his own.

Without a girlfriend, Pygmalion has a lot of time on his hands. To stave off boredom, he decides to make an ivory statue of his ideal woman. The brilliant sculptor that he is, Pygmalion produces a statue that is extremely lifelike and super-hot. So hot, actually, that he begins to fall in love with it.

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Pygmalion knows that the statue is made of ivory he was the one who made it, after all , but he can't help smothering it with kisses. He continues to fantasize that she's a real woman, and at one point, he gropes the statute so hard that he's afraid he's damaged her limbs.

Don't worry, she's fine. Ivory is really strong. Perhaps in an attempt to be even creepier, the sculptor starts to give gifts to his creation.

His presents include clothes, pearls, shells, earrings, rings, pretty stones, singing birds, flowers, and talking parrots. Jackpot for the statue! Then, to top it off, Pygmalion lays his naked statue on a luxurious bed covered in purple blankets.

He even provides a squishy pillow for her head. Once she's on the bed, Pygmalion calls the statue his "bride. The stories are divided into three sections: He provides lively versions of the myths of Zeus and Hera, Venus and Adonis, Daphne and Apollo, and their cohorts on Mount Olympus; the love story of Pygmalion and Galatea; the legends of the Trojan War and the epic wanderings of Ulysses and Aeneas; the joys of Valhalla and the furies of Thor; and the tales of Beowulf and Robin Hood.

Bulfinch’s Mythology

The tales are eminently readable. As Bulfinch wrote, "Without a knowledge of mythology much of the elegant literature of our own language cannot be understood and appreciated.

Our book is an attempt to solve this problem, by telling the stories of mythology in such a manner as to make them a source of amusement. In addition to serving as secretary of the Boston Society of Natural History, he thoroughly researched the myths and legends and copiously cross-referenced them with literature and art.

As such, the myths are an indispensable guide to the cultural values of the nineteenth century; however, it is the vigor of the stories themselves that returns generation after generation to Bulfinch. The justly famous Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch contains three volumes the major contents of which are retained in this abridgment for the student and general reader. The forerunner of such interpreters as Edith Hamilton and Robert Graves, Thomas Bulfinch wanted to make these stories available to the general reader.

A series of private notes to himself grew into one of the single most useful and concise guides to literature and mythology.

Ch. 5: Pygmalion, Venus and Adonis, Apollo, and Halcyone

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