Thursday, January 24, 2019

Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology

An image of Pygmalion, the sculptor who fell in love with a statue.

The story that really caught my attention, and kept it, was the story of Pygmalion. I have always been a huge fan of Greek myth, and I was really excited when I saw this one on the anthology! I read this story in my high school English class for fun, and it's such an interesting concept. Pygmalion, a legendary sculptor from Cyprus creates a statue of ivory that represents the perfect woman and the epitome of womanhood itself. The thought of women no longer interests him when he has already created perfection in his eyes. He prays to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and makes an offering to her at her altar on the day of her festival. When he returns to the statue and kisses it, he realizes the statue is no longer hardened, and the statue has become a woman, who he marries and eventually produces a child with. The story is so interesting to me because it deals with the idea of beauty and love being in the eye of the beholder, and I believe that's absolutely true to life itself. 

Bibliography

1. Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated by Tony Kline (2000). http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/04/ovids-metamorphoses-pygmalion.html

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