Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Week 2 Reading Anthology: Pygmalion

I've decided I want to use Pygmalion for my story telling, so that's where I focused my notes here. From a YouTube video:


I want to write a sequel to the story about the statue-woman and Pygmalion having a child who will turn out to be a "child of wax" like in that African folktale. So I need clues from this story to help me with the sequel:

Pygmalion is a misogynist, but he has an idealized view of women and perhaps of family life too...? He kisses the statue, and brings presents: shells, pebbles, birds, flowers, beads, amber (that amber detail is very interesting!). He dresses up the statue: clothing, jewelry... puts it on the bed with luxurious bedspreads.

Venus festival with offering of a heifer (killed!)... If you can grant all things, you gods, I wish as a bride to have...” so maybe there could be a sacrifice to get a child. Sign of the goddess: she made the flame flare up and shake.

When he kisses her, she loses her hardness: "as the beeswax of Hymettus softens in the sun and is moulded" ... PERFECT! I had forgotten there was a reference to wax in the story itself. Now I totally want to do this child-of-wax story.

Ends with bearing a son Paphos.

Hey, maybe she could be wax and not flesh!!! The story says it was flesh, but maybe not: " It was flesh! The pulse throbbed under his thumb." ... I'll look at the Latin for some clues later maybe.

I totally want to do the wax story now!



Story source: Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated by Tony Kline (2000). In the Anthology: Metamorphosis.


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