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Week 2 Story: Pygmalion's Painting


Pygmalion lived alone. He saw the flaws of all the women around him and decided it was better to live on his own than with any of  the corrupt women he could take as a wife. But Pygmalion was lonely, so one day, he decided to create the perfect women. He took out his easel, brushes, and paints, and drew a woman so beautiful, no man would ever doubt her perfection. He painted her clothes of fine silk, skin as white as ivory, and fine jewelry as gorgeous as she. Once she was completed, Pygmalion framed her painting and hung it on his wall, where he passed by every day. Every time he walked past her, Pygmalion would caress her cheeks or stroke her name, pretending the canvas to be flesh. And little by little, he added to her image, painting her a small gift every day.

Rapidly, Pygmalion fell in love with her more and more, but grew more and more discontent with her lack of life. When the festival of Venus finally arrived, Pygmalion saw this opportunity to pray to the gods for a living woman. He made his way to the altar timidly, nervous of the outcome. Choosing his words carefully, he prayed, "Oh gods, all the women here I am able to take for a wife are filled with evil. But the woman in my painting is perfect. She is full of goodness, of beauty and light. I pray to you that I am able to find a woman as flawless as she is one day." Venus heard his prayer, and couldn't help but smile at Pygmalion's love for this woman. She was the goddess of love, after all, and she did love love. She patiently awaited to see Pygmalion's reaction when he returned home and saw her surprise gift to him.

Pygmalion left the altar, feeling anxious for the future of his love life. While he trusted the gods, he was unsure a woman existed who could ever compare to his painting. After he entered his door, he mustered the courage to go see his painting. Even though she was not real, at least he still had her. Except... she was gone. Pygmalion started at the blank canvas, wondering if someone had switched his painting with this new blank image. He took off, panicked, to try to find where his painting had gone. As he began to run, however, he bumped straight into a woman! Unsure if he should apologize or scream, he took a moment to compose himself and looked up. But he could not believe what he saw... there was the woman from his painting! Like before, he caressed her cheek and stroked her hair. But this time, he did not have to pretend her flesh was real.

And from then on, the woman from the painting was alive. She continued to live in Pygmalion's house (thought this time, not on the wall). Eventually, the two had a son named Paphos, for which the island the two lovers first met on was named.



Author's note: I chose to keep the basic story structure and the characters the same, as I feel they are important parts of the story of Pygmalion. However, I thought it would be interesting to change what object Pygmalion fell in love with. One thing I wanted to include in this story but was unable to was the meaning behind the name Paphos, since this story serves as an origin story for the name of the city. I was unable to find the meaning behind the name or where is came from.

Bibliography. "Pygmalion" from Ovid's Metamorphoses translated by Tony Kline. Story source. 
Image information: Image of man at museum by StockSnap. Source: Pixabay.
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Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 4, 2018 at 7:19 PM

    Hi Shea,

    Your story starts out really good, I could really imagine the painting when you described it. I also felt that if you continued to describe the story how you did before, it would be better. The story was still great but this would have make it better. I really liked how you decided to change up the story and make it into your own. I also feel like your story ended really fast while the beginning was long.

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  2. Hayley BezdekSeptember 9, 2018 at 10:56 PM

    Hi Shea!

    I really like the detail you used to start out your story. The way you talked about the painting I could easily picture the beautiful woman Pygmalion wanted! I think it's cool that you incorporated the city Pathos into your story, and I really wish you would have described more about the city because I would have loved to hear more about it.

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  3. UnknownSeptember 10, 2018 at 10:45 AM

    Hi Shea, nice story. I like how you chose to create your own meaning for the name of the child. When I started reading I thought it was the Narcissus story retold. The details you added for the painting were really great because they made me able to really visualize it, touching the paintings cheek and hair. I wonder more about the festival, and the painting come to life as an individual. You did a great job with the main character, but I would have liked to have heard a response from the newly created person or a reaction from the protagonist to the god for creating this woman for him. I like the idea of learning more about the painting person, what if she was beautiful but so boring because she was not born but made? Or what if she was the perfect image but had the worst personality? Just some thoughts - but still I really like what you wrote!

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  4. UnknownSeptember 11, 2018 at 5:32 PM

    Hi Shea!
    As short as your story was it was quite compelling! I have yet to read the origin story for which this story is based, but I feel like you did a great job keeping to the same premise while also expanding in your own unique way. I wonder how well it would have worked if Venus were to have put some sort of catch with her gift, because how often do the gods ever make it that simple for us! I enjoyed your happy ending, however it would of loved to know if the woman from the painting was just as familiar with Pygmalion or if she had just met him since being alive. If you were to have to expand, you perfectly set yourself up for another direction to be taken. Due to your significant use of detail I wish there was more offered on their first actual encounter sine Pygmalion was so in love with the woman in the painting. Nice work!

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  5. Emily PattersonSeptember 17, 2018 at 10:49 AM

    Shea,
    So I haven't read the original story for this but the first couple of sentences made me laugh because I could tell that this was a old Greek story because of the misogynistic point of view. The fact that he thought he could only create the perfect woman out of his image. I wonder how the story would flow if the main character was a woman who was trying to create the perfect man. I would have liked to see more information about what happened to the couple after they met! The ending of the story seemed rushed to me. Good job all around.

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