Who Is Pygmalion and What Does He Have to Do With Greek Art
The story of Pygmalion and Galatea is one of the well-nigh pop classical myths ever told. In the myth, Pygmalion, a Cypriot sculptor, falls in beloved with his statue, Galatea. In the end, Aphrodite, the goddess of dearest, fulfills his wish and makes the statue real. Pygmalion's myth has influenced countless literary adaptations and inspired endless works of art. Information technology remains a fascinating myth well-nigh the power of dearest and artistic creation.
The Myth Of Pygmalion And Galatea
The Name Galatea
Although today the myth is widely known equally the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea, this was not the case in antiquity.
In fact, all of the ancient authors, including Ovid, ignore the proper noun Galatea. The myth was simply known every bit the story of Pygmalion and the Image. According to some alternative versions, the statue was an image of Venus and Pygmalion a king of Cyprus.
The start mention of the name Galatea appears in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's dramatic work Pygmalion in 1770. It is unknown whether Rousseau came up with the proper name Galatea for the statue or whether he was simply the kickoff to record information technology as such. Nevertheless, from then on, the name became mainstream.
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But why the name Galatea in item? According to a view, an explanation could be that the name sounded familiarly ancient to the ears of the 18th-century European audience. As well, the ancient Greek myth of Galatea and Polyphemus was well known at the time.
Pygmalion Sees The Propoitides
The nigh complete version of the story is found in Ovid'due south Metamorphoses (X.243-297). The story begins with another myth; that of the Propoitides.
The Propoitides were a grouping of women living in Republic of cyprus who had denied that Venus – the Roman equivalent of Aphrodite – was their goddess. Enraged, Aphrodite punished the women who became the start prostitutes in history. In Ovid'southward words:
"the obscene Propoetides dared to deny divinity of Venus, for which fault, (and it is common fame) they were the first to criminate their bodies, through the wrath of Venus; and then blushing shame was lost, White blood, in their bad faces grew so fast, so hard, information technology was no wonder they were turned with modest change into hard and lifeless stones." (Ov. Met)
The story of the Propoitides is interesting for whoever interested in the history of prostitution every bit it presents all the stereotypes surrounding the profession with a good dose of misogyny perfectly reflecting the ideas of the male-dominated Greek and Roman societies.
Other than that, the story of the Propoitides in Ovid functions as a prelude to Pygmalion's myth. Pygmalion was a sculptor also living in Cyprus. After seeing the Propoitides' immoral manner of life, he was shocked. In disgust, he decided to seek a life of isolation away from women.
Pygmalion Creates The Statue
Since Pygmalion was a sculptor, he decided to create the perfect statue. He may take decided to stay away from women simply nothing could stop him from creating the ideal woman using his chisel.
Pygmalion's ideal woman was made of snowfall-white ivory. The proportions were perfect. No woman in existent life could go shut to the beauty of Pygmalion's cosmos.
The statue was in fact so well-made that someone could hands mistake it for a real woman. This was all due to Pygmalion's sculpting skill:
"Information technology appeared in truth
a perfect virgin with the grace of life, but in the expression of such modesty all motion was restrained—and and then his art
concealed his art."
Pygmalion Falls In Love With The Statue
Very quickly Pygmalion became obsessed with his cosmos. Galatea was not merely beautiful but as well perfect. Different the Propoitides, she was unable to partake in immoral activities. The beauty of the statue was so great that many aboriginal authors wrote that this was a perfect portrait of Venus, the Goddess of beauty and love.
Pygmalion was in honey. Of course, Galatea was an inanimate existence only this did not stop Pygmalion from feeling great affection for her and treating her like his wife. In the course of things, the sculptor began trying to deceive himself into believing that Galatea is a real woman:
"He lifts up both his hands to experience the work, and wonders if it tin be ivory, because it seems to him more than truly flesh. —
his mind refusing to excogitate of information technology as ivory, he kisses it and feels
his kisses are returned. And speaking dear, caresses it with loving hands that seem to make an print, on the parts they bear on, and so real that he fears he and so may bruise
her by his eager pressing."
Furthermore, he began bringing the statue gifts of high value to delight it, but like he would with a real woman. He also dressed Galatea in wearing apparel and jewelry, fifty-fifty though as Ovid states, she looked more beautiful naked. Finally, Pygmalion placed his creation onto a bed with pillows and expensive sheets.
Pygmalion Prays To Venus
On the twenty-four hour period of Venus' festival, Pygmalion made an offer to the goddess and every bit he stood on the altar he whispered:
"If information technology is truthful,
O Gods, that you tin give all things, I pray
to have as my married woman […]
1 like my ivory [Statue]."
Venus heard Pygmalion's wish and made the flame flare iii times as a sign that she understood what he had asked.
The Statue Is Alive!
When Pygmalion came dorsum domicile, he approached his ivory wife and kissed her lips. At that moment something strange happened. This time he didn't have to pretend that her lips were warm. This fourth dimension the lips were actually warm and felt like human being lips.
Fascinated Pygmalion kissed Galatea once more and touched her breast with his hand. Where he touched it, the ivory became softer and warmer. With every new impact and kiss, Galatea was becoming less and less statue until finally:
"Information technology must be mankind!
The veins pulsate beneath the careful test of his directed finger. Then, indeed, the Astonished hero poured out lavish thanks to Venus; pressing with his raptured lips his statue's lips. Now real, true to life— the maiden felt the kisses given to her, and blushing, lifted up her timid optics, so that she saw the light and sky above, as well as her rapt lover while he leaned gazing abreast her"
The statue was now alive, information technology had get Galatea, and Galatea could feel Pygmalion's kisses.
Pygmalion and Galatea got married past Venus herself. From their marriage, Paphos was built-in later on whom the city of Paphos got its name.
Different Readings Of Pygmalion And Galatea
Trompe L' Oeil And Animism
The myth of Pygmalion and Galatea perfectly encapsulates i of ancient art's master objectives; the mimesis of nature. For Greek and Roman art, and artwork ought to re-create nature as closely as possible. This pursuit of reality became an obsession for ancient artists who attempted to create illusions of reality that deceived the eye, Trompe 50' Oeil. A famous case was the Greek painter Zeuxis who painted grapes, so life-like, that birds tried to peck them.
In that regard, Pygmalion's myth fulfills art's promise. Pygmalion was so talented that he could make his fine art appear as if it was non art but reality. As Ovid writes, "his art curtained his art". Just like the Greeks aspired, Pygmalion did not simply perfectly reproduce nature. He improved on it by creating a perfect form that did not be in nature.
Information technology is also worth mentioning that Pygmalion and Galatea also perfectly fit into the animistic nature of the Greco-Roman faith.
People in artifact saw life everywhere around them. From the copse to the rivers, and from the stars to their statues, everything was live. Especially cult statues were non thought of existence representations of the gods simply rather the gods themselves. After agreement this idea, it is not really hard to see where Pygmalion's myth is coming from.
This animistic tradition is too continued with a wider classical tradition of sentient statues and automata. Daedalus, the legendary inventor, gave vocalism to his statues using quicksilver, Pandora was made of dirt, and Hephaestus created automata (self-operating machines/robots) like Talos.
Galatea's Free Will
Information technology is clear that Galatea could feel equally Pygmalion could. What is not clear though, is whether she had free will. In Ovid, Pygmalion and Galatea become married but there is no actual testify that Galatea was costless to act as she pleased. She appears to be more like an extension of Pygmalion'due south volition. In fact, she does not even say a unmarried discussion. Information technology is evident that, though human being, she is not continuing on equal grounds with her creator but that may have more than to practice with the next section.
A Feminist Reading Of Pygmalion And Galatea
Even though this is conspicuously a tale most dear and the love for creating this is not the myth of the love of Pygmalion and Galatea. It is a myth near Pygmalion's love.
From the get-get, information technology is crystal clear that Ovid is exploring a male fantasy. This fantasy stands inside the boundaries of femininity as defined by the patriarchal standards of the time.
Pygmalion is disgusted past the immorality of the Propoitides, who are common prostitutes. It is implied that Pygmalion sees in the Propoitides something that is natural in all women and for that reason he chooses to isolate himself.
The complete opposite of the Propoitides is Galatea. She embodies the patriarchal ideal of the perfect adult female. Galatea is beautiful across imagination and shows no signs of sexuality. While the Propoitides never blushed or felt shame, Galatea's first act as a human being is to blush and shy away. The Propoitides refused Aphrodite showing violent independence that defied even the gods, Galatea is created by Aphrodite herself and is obedient. She is also passive whereas the Propoitides are active and artificial where they are natural.
Agalmatophilia In Pygmalion And Galatea
With the term agalmatophilia, 20th-century scientists described the sexual attraction for a statue but too a doll or a mannequin. Pygmalionism is a class of agalmatophilia which entails love for someone's ain creation.
Cloudless of Alexandria was a Christian author of the 2d century CE who used the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea to advocate confronting the ancient organized religion. Cloudless argued in his Exhortation to the Greeks (4, page 130) that the cult of images similar statues of gods led to immoral and unnatural behavior.
"We must, so, approach the statues [of the gods] closely as nosotros maybe tin in order to prove from their very appearance that they are inseparably associated with error. For their forms are unmistakably stamped with the characteristic marks of the daimones (spirits)."
Clement drew from a tradition challenge that the statue was in fact an image of Aphrodite. Clement also added other examples of men trying to accept intercourse with statues and cult images.
This critique of classical art'due south attempt to reproduce and meliorate nature became a pregnant part of the Christian ideology that went after idealism. This tradition influenced Christian art for centuries peculiarly in the eastern half of the Roman Empire which came to be known every bit the Byzantine Empire.
Source: https://www.thecollector.com/pygmalion-and-galatea-myth/
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