Pygmalion (mythology)

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Pygmalion (mythology)

Pygmalion is a legend

Legend

A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude ....
ary figure of Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is an island country situated in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, east of Greece, west of Lebanon, Syria, and Israel, south of Turkey and north of Egypt....
. Though Pygmalion is the Greek version of the Phoenicia

Phoenicia

Phoenicia was an ancient civilization centered in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal regions of modern day Lebanon, extending to parts of Israel, Syria and the Palestinian territories....
n royal name Pumayyaton, he is most familiar from Ovid

Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso was a Roman Empire poet known as Ovid to the English language-speaking world, who wrote about love, seduction, and Roman mythology transformation....
's Metamorphoses, X

Metamorphoses (poem)

The Metamorphoses by the Ancient Rome poet Ovid is a Narrative poetry in fifteen books that describes the Creation myth and history of the world....
, in which Pygmalion is a sculptor who falls in love with a statue he has made.

In Ovid's narrative, Pygmalion was a Cypriot

Cyprus

Woman

File:Duval La Naissance de Venus.jpgA woman is a female human. The term woman is usually reserved for an adult, with the term girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent....
out of ivory

Ivory

File:Ivory decoration.jpgIvory is formed from dentine and constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals such as the elephant, hippopotamus, walrus, mammoth and narwhal....
.

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Encyclopedia

Pygmalion is a legend

Legend

Cyprus

Phoenicia

Ovid

Metamorphoses (poem)

Cyprus

Woman

Ivory

File:Ivory decoration.jpgIvory is formed from dentine and constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals such as the elephant, hippopotamus, walrus, mammoth and narwhal....
. According to Ovid, after seeing the Propoetides

Propoetides

The Propoetides are in Greek mythology the daughters of Propoetus from the city of Amathus on the island of Cyprus. In Roman literature they are treated by Ovid in his Metamorphoses :...
prostituting themselves, he is 'not interested in women', but his statue is so realistic that he falls in love with it. He offers the statue presents and eventually prays to Venus

Venus (mythology)

Venus was a major Roman mythology goddess principally associated with love, beauty and sexual reproduction, the equivalent of the Greek mythology Aphrodite....
(Aphrodite

Aphrodite

Aphrodite is the classical Greek mythology goddess of love, sex, and beauty. According to Greek oral poet Hesiod, she was born when Uranus was castrated by his son Cronus....
). She takes pity on him and brings the statue to life. They marry and have a son, Paphos

Paphos

Paphos Paphos is the mythical birthplace of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty, and the founding myth is interwoven with the goddess at every level....
:

"...a lovely boy was born;
Paphos his name, who grown to manhood, wall'd
The city Paphos, from the founder call'd."

and in some versions also a daughter, Metharme.

Ovid's mention of Paphos suggests that he was drawing on a more circumstantial account than the source for a passing mention of Pygmalion in Pseudo-Apollodorus' Bibliotheke, a Hellenic mythography of the second-century CE. Perhaps he drew on the lost narrative by Philostephanus

Philostephanus

Philostephanus of Cyrene, Libya was a Hellenistic civilization writer from North Africa Africa, who was a pupil of the poet Callimachus in Alexandria and doubtless worked there during the 3rd century BC....
that was paraphrased by Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria , was the first notable member of the Christianity of Alexandria, and one of its most distinguished teachers. He was born about the middle of the 2nd century, and died between 211 and 216....
. Pygmalion is the Greek version of the Phoenician royal name Pumayyaton and figures in the founding legend of Paphos

Paphos

Paphos Paphos is the mythical birthplace of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty, and the founding myth is interwoven with the goddess at every level....
in Cyprus.

Parallels in Greek myth

The story of the breath of life in a statue has parallels in the examples of Daedalus

Daedalus

In Greek mythology, Daedalus was a most skillful artificer, or craftsman, so skillful that he was said to have invented images that seemed to move about....
, who used quicksilver

Mercury (element)

Mercury , also called quicksilver or hydrargyrum , is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. A heavy, silvery d-block metal, mercury is one of six elements that are liquid at or near room temperature and pressure....
to install a voice in his statues; of Hephaestus

Hephaestus

Hephaestus was a Greek god whose Roman equivalent was Vulcan . He was the god of technology, blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculpture, metals, metallurgy, Fire and volcanoes....
, who created automata

Automaton

An automaton is a self-operating machine. The word is sometimes used to describe a robot, more specifically an autonomous robot....
for his workshop; of Talos

Talos

In the Cretan tales incorporated into Greek mythology, T?los or T?lon was a giant man of bronze who protected Europa in Crete, circling the island's shores three times daily while guarding it....
, an artificial man of bronze; and, according to Hesiod

Hesiod

Hesiod was a Greek language oral poet, his date is uncertain but leading scholars agree that Hesiod lived in the latter half of the Eighth-century BCE....
, Pandora

Pandora

[Image:Pandora.jpg|right|thumb|300px|"The Creation of "[A]NESIDORA" on a white-ground kylix by the Tarquinia Painter, ca 460 BC In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman....
, who was made from clay at the behest of Zeus

Zeus

Zeus in Greek mythology is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky father and List of thunder gods. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull , and oak....
.

The moral anecdote of the "Apega of Nabis

Apega of Nabis

The Apega of Nabis, also known as the Iron Apega, as described by Polybius, was an ancient torture device similar to the iron maiden . It was invented by Nabis, a king who ruled Sparta as a tyrant from 207 to 192 BCE....
", recounted by the historian Polybius

Polybius

Polybius was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period noted for his book called The Histories covering in detail the period of 220–146 BC....
, described a supposed mechanical simulacra of the tyrant's wife, that crushed victims in her embrace.

The discovery of the Antikythera mechanism

Antikythera mechanism

The Antikythera mechanism , is an ancient mechanical calculator designed to calculate astronomy positions. It was discovered in the Antikythera wreck off the Greece island of Antikythera, between Kythera and Crete, in 1901....
suggests that such rumoured animated statues had some grounding in contemporary mechanical technology. The island of Rhodes

Rhodes

Rhodes is a Greece List of islands of Greece approximately southwest of Turkey in eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007 of which 53,709 resided in the Rhodes capital city of the island....
was particularly known for its displays of mechanical engineering and automata - Pindar

Pindar

Pindar , was an Ancient Greek Lyric poetry poet.Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, Pindar is the one whose work is by far the best preserved, and critics in antiquity tended to regard him as the greatest....
, one of the nine lyric poets

Nine lyric poets

The nine lyric poets were a canon of archaic Greece composers esteemed by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria as worthy of critical study....
of ancient Greece, said this of Rhodes in his seventh Olympic Ode:

"The animated figures stand
Adorning every public street
And seem to breathe in stone, or
move their marble feet."

The trope of a sculpture so lifelike it seemed about to move was a commonplace with writers on works of art in Antiquity that was inherited by writers on art after the Renaissance.

Re-interpretations of Pygmalion

The basic Pygmalion story has been widely transmitted and re-presented in the arts through the centuries. At an unknown date, later authors give as the name of the statue that of the sea-nymph

Nymph

In Greek mythology, a nymph is any member of a large class of mythological entities in human form. They were typically associated with a particular location or landform....
Galatea

Galatea (mythology)

The name "Galatea"Though the name "Galatea" has become so firmly associated with Pygmalion's statue as to seem antique, it originated with a post-classical writer....
or Galathea. Goethe calls her Elise, based upon the variants in the story of Dido/Elissa.

In the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
Pygmalion was held up as an example of the excesses of idolatry

Idolatry

Idolatry is usually defined as worship of any cult image, idea, or Object , as opposed to the worship of a monotheistic God. It is considered a major sin in the Abrahamic religions whereas in religions where such activity is not considered as sin, the term "idolatry" itself is absent....
, probably spurred by Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria , was the first notable member of the Christianity of Alexandria, and one of its most distinguished teachers. He was born about the middle of the 2nd century, and died between 211 and 216....
's suggestion that Pygmalion had carved an image of Aphrodite herself. However, by the 18th century it was a highly influential love-story, seen as such in Rousseau's musical play of the story. By the 19th century, the story often becomes one in which the awakened beloved rejects Pygmalion; although she comes alive, she is initially cold and unattainable.

A twist on this theme can also be seen in the story of Pinocchio
Pinocchio

The Adventures of Pinocchio is a children's literature by Italian author Carlo Collodi. The first half was originally a serial between 1881 and 1883, and then later completed as a book for children in February 1883....
where a wooden puppet is transformed into a real boy, though in this case the puppet possesses sentience prior to its transformation, and it is the puppet and not the woodcarver (sculptor) who beseeches the miracle.

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English people poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist....
has a version of the legend in The Winter's Tale
The Winter's Tale

The Winter's Tale is a play by William Shakespeare, first published in the First Folio in 1623. Although it was listed as a comedy when it first appeared, some modern editors have relabeled the play a Romance ....
when Hermione is seen as a lifelike statue in the final scene.

Paintings

The story has been the subject of notable paintings by Jean-Léon Gérôme

Jean-Léon Gérôme

Jean-L?on G?r?me was a France Painting and sculpture in the style now known as Academic painting. The range of his oeuvre included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism, portraits and other subjects, bringing the Academic painting tradition to an artistic climax....
, Honoré Daumier

Honoré Daumier

Honor? Daumier , was a France printmaker, caricaturist, Painting, and sculptor, whose many works offer commentary on social and political life in France in the 19th century....
, Edward Burne-Jones

Edward Burne-Jones

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet was an England artist and designer closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, who worked closely with William Morris on a wide range of decorative arts as a founding partner in Morris & Co.....
(four major works from 1868–1870, then again in larger versions from 1875-1878), Auguste Rodin, Ernest Normand

Ernest Normand

Ernest Normand was a notable painter in Victorian England. He painted history and orientalism paintings, and also undertook portraits. His work was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites....
, Paul Delvaux

Paul Delvaux

Paul Delvaux was a Belgium Painting, famous for his surrealist paintings with female nudes....
, Francisco Goya

Francisco Goya

Francisco Jos? de Goya y Lucientes was a Spanish Painting and Printmaking. Goya was a court painter to the Spanish Crown and a chronicler of history....
, Franz von Stuck, Francois Boucher

François Boucher

Fran?ois Boucher was a France Painting, a proponent of Rococo taste, known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories representing the arts or pastoral occupations, intended as a sort of two-dimensional furniture....
, and Thomas Rowlandson

Thomas Rowlandson

Thomas Rowlandson was an English artist and caricaturist....
, among others. There have also been numerous sculptures of the 'awakening'.

Literature

Ovid's Pygmalion has inspired several works of literature, including

Friedrich Schiller's
Friedrich Schiller

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller [johan/jo?han kr?st?f fri?t??? f?n ??l??/??l?] was a Germany poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright....
poem "Ideals"
Mary Shelley's
Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel literature, best known for her Gothic fiction Frankenstein ....
novel Frankenstein
Frankenstein

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, generally known as Frankenstein, is a novel written by the British author Mary Shelley. Shelley started writing Frankenstein when she was 18 and finished when she was 19....
Nathaniel Hawthorne's
Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hathorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and Elizabeth Clarke Manning Hathorne....
short story "The Birth-Mark
The Birth-Mark

"The Birth-Mark" is a romantic short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne that examines obsession with human perfection. It was first published in the March, 1843 edition of The Pioneer....
"
William Morris's
William Morris

William Morris was an English architect, furniture and textile designer, artist, writer, and Socialism associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement....
poem "Earthly Paradise"
George Bernard Shaw's
George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw, was an Irish people playwright.Although Shaw's first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, his talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60 plays....
play Pygmalion
Pygmalion (play)

Pygmalion is a Play by George Bernard Shaw loosely inspired by Pygmalion . It tells the story of Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics who makes a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering that he can successfully pass off a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, as a refined society lady by teaching her how to speak with an upper class...
Tawfiq el-Hakim's play Pygmalion
H.P. Lovecraft's short story "Herbert West: Reanimator"
Isaac Asimov's
Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov , was a Russian-born United States author and professor of biochemistry, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books....
novel "The Positronic Man
The Positronic Man

The Positronic Man is a novel co-written by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, based on Asimov's novella The Bicentennial Man.It tells of a robot that begins to display characteristics, such as creativity, traditionally the province of humans; the robot is ultimately declared an official human being....
"
Tommaso Landolfi's
Tommaso Landolfi

Tommaso Landolfi was an Italian author and translator.Born in Pico, Italy, province of Frosinone, he wrote numerous grotesque tales and novels, sometimes on the border of speculative fiction, science fiction and realism....
short story "La moglie di Gogol" ('The Wife of Gogol')
Willy Russell's
Willy Russell

William Russell is a British dramatist, lyricist, and composer. His best-known works are Educating Rita, Shirley Valentine, and Blood Brothers ....
play Educating Rita
Educating Rita

Educating Rita is a stage comedy by British playwright Willy Russell. It is a play for two actors set entirely in the office of an Open University lecturer....
Richard Powers's
Richard Powers

Richard Powers is an United States novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology....
novel Galatea 2.2
Galatea 2.2

Galatea 2.2 is a novel by Richard Powers. The novel is pseudo-autobiographical: the narrator is named Richard Powers and there is discussion of the four novels he wrote before Galatea 2.2 along with other references to his real biography....
Amanda Filipacchi's
Amanda Filipacchi

Amanda Filipacchi is an United States writer best known for her humorous, inventive, and controversial novels.Her fiction has been translated into 13 languages and has received critical acclaim in the U.S....
novel Vapor
Carol Ann Duffy's
Carol Ann Duffy

Carol Ann Duffy is a United Kingdom poet, playwright and freelance writer born in Glasgow, Scotland. She grew up in Staffordshire and graduated in philosophy from University of Liverpool in 1977....
poem "Pygmalion's Bride"
John Dryden's
John Dryden

John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of English Restoration to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden....
poem "Pygmalion and the Statue"
Walid BItar's poem "The Fourth Person"

Opera, ballet and music

The story of Pygmalion is the subject of Jean-Philippe Rameau

Jean-Philippe Rameau

Jean-Philippe Rameau was one of the most important French composers and music theory of the Baroque music era. He replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French author of music for the harpsichord of his time, alongside Fran?ois Couperin....
's 1748 opera, Pigmalion
Pigmalion (opera)

For the opera by Georg Benda see Pygmalion Pigmalion is an opera in the form of a one-act acte de ballet by Jean-Philippe Rameau first performed on 27 August, 1748 at the Op?ra in Paris....
. It was also the subject of Gaetano Donizetti

Gaetano Donizetti

Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italy composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. Donizetti's most famous work is Lucia di Lammermoor , and arguably his most immediately recognizable piece of music is the aria "Una furtiva lagrima" from L'elisir d'amore ....
's first opera, Il Pigmalione
Il Pigmalione

Il Pigmalione is an opera in one act by Gaetano Donizetti to a libretto of Antonio Simeone Sografi.'Il Pigmalione', a drama in one act , is the first opera that Donizetti composed....
.

The English progressive rock group Yes composed "Turn Of The Century" (1977); it tells the story of the sculptor Roan who, in the grief of his wife's death, "molds his passion into clay." The sculpture of his wife comes to life and they fall in love.

The great choreographer Marius Petipa

Marius Petipa

Marius Ivanovich Petipa was a ballet dancer, teacher, and choreographer. Marius Petipa is cited nearly unanimously by the most noted artists of the classical ballet to be the most influential balletmaster and choreographer that has ever lived ....
and the composer Prince Nikita Trubetskoi created a 4 act ballet on the subject called Pygmalion, ou La Statue de Chypre
Pygmalion, ou La Statue de Chypre

Pygmalion, ou La Statue de Chypre is a ballet in 4 Acts-6 Scenes, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Prince Nikita Trubestkoi....
. The ballet was revived in 1895 with the great ballerina Pierina Legnani

Pierina Legnani

Pierina Legnani was an Italy ballerina, and the first to be officially titled as Prima Ballerina Assoluta and considered one of the greatest ballerinas of all time....
.

The song "Trial By Fire" by darkwave/gothic band ThouShaltNot

ThouShaltNot

ThouShaltNot are a band whose style blends post-punk, goth, industrial music, and synthpop. Active since 1998, they are from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and are signed to Dancing Ferret Discs....
recreates the idea of a modern-day Pygmalion with lyrics such as "I sculpt your nature within, I am your Pygmalion" and "I dust away the plaster from off your breathing body...You'll never be the same."

The ballet Coppélia

Coppélia

Copp?lia is a sentimental comic ballet with original choreography by Arthur Saint-L?on to a ballet libretto by Saint-L?on and Charles Nuitter and music by L?o Delibes....
, about an inventor who makes a life-sized dancing doll, has strong echoes of Pygmalion.

Stage plays

There have also been successful stage-plays based upon the work, such as W. S. Gilbert's

W. S. Gilbert

Sorry, no overview for this topic
Pygmalion and Galatea (1871).

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw, was an Irish people playwright.Although Shaw's first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, his talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60 plays....
's Pygmalion
Pygmalion (play)

Pygmalion is a Play by George Bernard Shaw loosely inspired by Pygmalion . It tells the story of Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics who makes a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering that he can successfully pass off a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, as a refined society lady by teaching her how to speak with an upper class...
(1912, staged 1914) owes something to both the Greek Pygmalion and the legend of "King Cophetua

Cophetua

King Cophetua was said to have been a legendary king who showed no interest in females, until one day he saw a pale barefoot beggar-girl dressed all in grey....
and the beggar maid"; in which a King lacks interest in women, but one day falls in love with a young beggar-girl, later educating her to be his Queen. Shaw's comedy of manners

Comedy of manners

The comedy of manners satirizes the manners and affectations of a social class, often represented by stock characters, such as the miles gloriosus in ancient times, the fop and the rake during the Restoration comedy, or an old person pretending to be young....
in turn was the basis for the Broadway musical My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady is a musical theater based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe....
(1956).

Films

Notable 20th century feature films are My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady (film)

My Fair Lady is a musical film film adaptation of the Lerner and Loewe stage musical, My Fair Lady, based in turn on the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw....
(1964, based on the stage play); Trading Places
Trading Places

Trading Places is an Academy Award-nominated 1983 in film comedy film starring Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis. It was directed by John Landis and written by Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod....
, Mighty Aphrodite
Mighty Aphrodite

Mighty Aphrodite is a 1995 in film United States comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. The screenplay was inspired by the mythology tale of Pygmalion ....
by director Woody Allen

Woody Allen

Woody Allen is an Cinema of the United States film director, writer, actor, comedian, musician and playwright.Allen's distinctive films, which run the gamut from dramas to Screwball comedy film, have made him one of the most respected living American directors....
; Weird Science
Weird Science (film)

Weird Science is a teen film written and directed by John Hughes and starring Anthony Michael Hall, Kelly LeBrock and Ilan Mitchell-Smith....
directed by John Hughes

John Hughes

John Hughes is the name of:...
; and the 1987 film Mannequin
Mannequin (film)

Mannequin is a 1987 in film romantic comedy film, starring Kim Cattrall, Andrew McCarthy, Meshach Taylor, James Spader, G. W. Bailey, and Estelle Getty....
, a remake of the 1948 classic One Touch of Venus
One Touch of Venus

One Touch of Venus is a musical theatre with music written by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ogden Nash, and book by S. J. Perelman and Nash, based on the novella The Tinted Venus by Thomas Anstey Guthrie, and very loosely spoofing the Pygmalion myth....
, as well as S1m0ne
S1m0ne

S1m0ne is a 2002 in film science fiction drama film written, produced and directed by Andrew Niccol, starring Al Pacino....
(featuring a computer-generated artificial intelligence as the love object). Many films have dealt collaterally with this theme.: Vertigo
Vertigo (film)

Vertigo is a psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring James Stewart and Kim Novak and featuring Barbara Bel Geddes and Tom Helmore....
, and more recently Lars and the Real Girl
Lars and the Real Girl

Lars and the Real Girl is a 2007 in film United States dramedy film directed by Craig Gillespie. The screenplay by Nancy Oliver focuses on a shy, lonely, socially inept young man who develops a relationship with a life-sized, anatomically-correct doll he orders Electronic commerce....
, depicting an introverted man who falls in love with a plastic sex doll. The play, 1946, and films, 1950 and 1993, "Born Yesterday" also carry the Pygmalion theme.

The popular horror genre in film has also had an interest in 'bringing to life' waxwork figures and show-room dummies (see: Waxworks: A Cultural Obsession by Michelle Bloom). Many horror films deviate considerably from the original story; for example, in The Stepford Wives
The Stepford Wives (1975 film)

The Stepford Wives is a 1975 science fiction film/horror film based on the 1972 in literature Ira Levin novel The Stepford Wives. It was directed by Bryan Forbes with a screenplay by William Goldman....
(1975) the creators turn their living wives into inanimate (robotic, compliant) wives. Likewise, the legend serves as the inspiration for one of the Lineages, the Galatea, that appears in the White Wolf role-playing game

Role-playing game

A role-playing game is a game in which the participants assume the roles of fictional characters. Participants determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization, and the actions succeed or fail according to a role-playing game system of rules and guidelines....
Promethean: The Created
Promethean: The Created

Promethean: The Created is a role-playing game published by White Wolf, Inc., set in the new World of Darkness.The game is inspired by the classic tales of Frankenstein's monster, the Golem and other such simulacrum....
.

Television

The American TV series My Living Doll
My Living Doll

My Living Doll was an United States comedy television series that aired for 26 episodes on CBS from September 27, 1964 to September 8, 1965....
portrayed a female robot (Julie Newmar
Julie Newmar

'Julie Newmar' is an American actor, dancer and singer. Her most famous role is Catwoman in the Batman television series....
) whose creators attempted to transform her into a "perfect woman".

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is an American television program that was broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1964, to January 15, 1968....
3rd season episode "The Galatea Affair" from 1966 is a spoof of My Fair Lady. A crude barroom entertainer (Joan Collins
Joan Collins

Joan Henrietta Collins Order of the British Empire is a Golden Globe Award-winning English actress, bestselling author and columnist....
) is taught to behave like a lady. Noel Harrison
Noel Harrison

Noel Harrison is an English people actor and singer....
, son of Rex Harrison
Rex Harrison

Sir Reginald ?Rex? Carey Harrison was an England actor of theatre and film, who won both an Academy Award and Tony Award....
, star of the My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady is a musical theater based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe....
film, is the guest star.

The Aerosmith
Aerosmith

Aerosmith is an United States hard rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston, Massachusetts" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band"....
music video for Hole in My Soul
Hole in My Soul

"Hole in My Soul" is a song performed by United States hard rock band Aerosmith. It was written by Steven Tyler, Joe Perry , and professional songwriter Desmond Child....
features a nerdy college student who tries to find the girl of his dreams by creating one in a lab, only to have her leave him.

The Japanese anime series Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 includes a character named Galatea
Galatea

Galatea is an ancient Greek name meaning "she who is milk-white", most notably referring to:* Galatea , one of three figures of classical myth:...
, an artificial life form designed to be the next evolution of the human race.

In Justice League Unlimited
Justice League Unlimited

Justice League Unlimited is an United States List of animated television series that was produced by and aired on Cartoon Network . Featuring a wide array of superheroes from the DC Comics universe, and specifically based on the Justice League superhero team, it is a direct sequel to the previous Justice League animated series....
, Emile Hamilton creates a clone of Supergirl, that he names Galatea.

In the Philippine TV series Love Spell presents: Barbie-cute features a teenage boy who falls in love with a mannequin who comes to life when lightning strikes it.

In the music video for This Time
This Time

This Time may refer to:...
by K-pop
K-pop

K-pop is an abbreviation for South Korea Pop music, specifically from South Korea. There are many artists and groups, such as BoA, Rain , Se7en , TVXQ, and Super Junior that have branched out of South Korea and have become popular in People's Republic of China, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Philippines, Thailand and others in South East A...
group Wonder Girls
Wonder Girls

The Wonder Girls are a South Korean girl group. They are produced by singer-songwriter Park Jin-Young and are signed to his talent agency, JYP Entertainment....
,a designer falls in love with his mannequin,and she comes to life. She runs away,leaving the designer to chase after her.

In "Fagmalion" a three-part episode of Will and Grace, Will Truman
Will Truman

William "Will" Truman is a fictional character on the United States sitcom Will & Grace, portrayed by Eric McCormack. He is a gay lawyer living in New York City with his best friend, Grace Adler....
falls in love with a man named Barry whom he sculpts into a more refined gay man following his coming out.

External links

.
, at http://thelatinlibrary.com

Pygmalion (mythology)

Parallels in Greek myth

Re-interpretations of Pygmalion

Paintings

Literature

Opera, ballet and music

Stage plays

Films

Television

Further reading

See also

External links