According to legend, Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love, could always sense immediately when humans fell under her spell, no matter where they were. She suddenly felt the presence of love in the palace of Pygmalion—no ordinary love, but the greatest she had ever known. She went to investigate and saw Pygmalion talking to and kissing his beloved statue. Instead of laughing at him, Aphrodite was impressed by the strength of his feelings.
The time came for the festival of Aphrodite—a lavish occasion when the people of Cyprus sacrificed white cattle, burned incense in her temple, and prayed to their goddess. As king, it was Pygmalion’s duty to lead the celebrations. When he had made his offerings in the temple, he went to the altar to pray. He was very shy and hardly dared to ask for what he really wanted. He longed for the statue to be his wife, but he knew it was impossible and would sound stupid. So instead he asked that he might marry a woman who was something like his ivory maiden.
The goddess Aphrodite, who knew all about love and how it worked, understood the true meaning in Pygmalion’s heart, and she decided to help him. The fire in the temple flared up three times—a sign from the gods that Pygmalion’s prayer had been heard.
Pygmalion went home to his statue. This time, when he touched it, it felt warm. Its skin became soft, and it breathed and came to life. Pygmalion could not believe it, but it was true—the statue had become a living woman.
Shaw’s Pygmalion
Irish writer George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion is now more famous than the Greek legend on which it was based. It tells the story of Henry Higgins, a scientist who studies phonetics, or speech sounds. To win a bet, he trains a young working-class flower seller named Eliza Doolittle to drop her strong cockney (lower-class London) accent, and to speak and behave like an aristocratic lady. He succeeds at first, managing to pass Eliza off as a society lady at upper-class parties, but eventually she rebels against his training.
The plot of Shaw's play is not strictly based on the original story. Instead, Shaw used the title to describe a man who tries to shape and control a woman to make her just the way he wants her to be, as the original Pygmalion did when he created his statue. Henry Higgins is trying to mold Eliza's personality, speech, and behavior, not her physical shape, and since she already has a mind of her own, she does not stand for it.
In 1956 Shaw's Pygmalion was turned into a successful musical, My Fair Lady, with music by Frederick Loewe and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. Among the featured songs were "On the Street Where You Live," and "I Could Have Danced All Night." In 1964 a film version of the musical was released, directed by George Cukor (1899-1983).
Left: The film version of My Fair Lady stars Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle and Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins.
Pygmalion gave thanks to Aphrodite with all his heart and kissed the maiden. When she opened her eyes, Pygmalion was the first thing she saw, and she fell in love with him at once. They were married, and Aphrodite herself attended the wedding. Although in the earliest versions of this legend Pygmalion’s wife had no name, later she was conventionally identified as Galatea. Pygmalion and Galatea had two children: their son was Paphos, for whom a coastal town in southwest Cyprus was named.
World History
