The story of Pygmalion, the sculptor and his sculpture who comes to life, Galatea is part sci-fi, part classical mythology. The story first appeared in Ovid's Metamorphoses. In the original version, Pygmalion, a talented sculptor, complains of the indiscretions of human women, and decides to make a female statue fashioned according to his own ideal woman. After praying to the Goddess Venus, the statue, Galatea comes to life. In some versions of the tale, Pygmalion and Galatea fall in love right away, but in others, Galatea is aloof and obstinate, only succumbing to her creator's advances over time. Their story is akin to that of Adam and Eve. Adam, the androgynous character who creates woman from within himself, becomes human only upon realizing his incompleteness, his first experience of desire and subsequent expulsion from Eden. Pygmalion, loathing the human condition, seeks to create his own Eden by making the perfect woman from his own hands. When Galatea was first created, she was perfect, but in her perfection, she was free from human desire. Pygmalion, spurred on in his romantic advances by Galatea's unavailability, seduces her, subjecting her to the same vagaries of the human/animal condition which he himself suffers so greatly.
Pygmalion
