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. In book 10 of Ovid 's Metamorphoses , Pygmalion was a Cypriot sculptor who carved a woman out of ivory alabaster.
Post-classical sources name her Galatea. According to Ovid, when Pygmalion saw the Propoetides of Cyprus practicing prostitution, he began "detesting the faults beyond measure which nature has given to women". He made a sculpture of a woman that he found so perfect he fell in love with it. Pygmalion kisses and fondles the sculpture, brings it various gifts, and creates a sumptuous bed for it.
In time, Aphrodite 's festival day came and Pygmalion made offerings at the altar of Aphrodite. There, too afraid to admit his desire, he quietly wished for a bride who would be "the living likeness of my ivory girl".
When he returned home, he kissed his ivory statue, and found that its lips felt warm. He kissed it again, and found that the ivory had lost its hardness.
Aphrodite had granted Pygmalion's wish. 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 is derived the name of the city. In some versions, Paphos was a son, and they also had a daughter, Metharme. Ovid's mention of Paphos suggests that he was drawing on a more circumstantial account [ 3 ] than the source for a passing mention of Pygmalion in Pseudo-Apollodorus' Bibliotheke , a Hellenic mythography of the 2nd-century AD.
