Pygmalion and Galatia

Pygmalion

Ancient Greek: Πυγμαλίων

is a legendary figure of Cyprus in Greek mythology who was a king and a sculptor.

He is most familiar from Ovid’s narrative poem Metamorphoses, in which Pygmalion was a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had carved- Galatia.

Pygmalion married the ivory sculpture which changed to a woman under Aphrodite’s blessing.

In Ovid’s narrative, they had a daughter, Paphos, from whom the city’s name is derived.

Pygmalion adoring his statue,

1717 depiction of Ovid’s narrative

by Jean Raoux.