Week 2 Story: A Giving Goddess
(Current version of this story also at https://sites.google.com/view/the-hymelian/pygmalion)
(Pygmalion and Galatea, from Wikipedia)
"O Pygmalion, why do you reject women so?" Venus sighed as she watched from above. The man she watched was Pygmalion, who had nothing but distaste for the women he saw each day. Instead, Pygmalion chose to create his own woman, the perfect one for him. Venus looked on as he began to carve away at a piece of ivory, shaping what he believed to be the ideal image.
"Well that certainly doesn't look like ME," Venus huffed, "but she is quite beautiful, it is a shame he can't truly have her."
Venus watched over Pygmalion as he grew more and more fond of his masterpiece. He began becoming far too close with this inanimate object for Venus to endure. He dressed it, kissed it, laid it down on his bedspread, and perhaps when Venus wasn't looking, did unspeakable things to it. Venus felt sorrow for the man who had no true beloved, but also sort of grossed out. "I like this guy, but man, does he do the weirdest stuff sometimes. Why can't he just find a nice girl to settle down with?"
Then came Venus's festival, a time when many cows were sacrificed in her honor. Venus was reveling in the joy when she noticed Pygmalion partaking as well. She heard his pleas.
"I care not for the women I know, only for the one I have made, and while I dare not ask for my ivory woman to be my wife, I would bestow upon you the request of one so alike." Venus was touched, and as a small sign to Pygmalion, shook the fire by which he prayed.
"If it'll get him to stop abusing that poor statue that can't do a thing about it, then I suppose I'll step in." Venus said to herself.
Venus watched as he returned home soon after. "He has no idea what he's in for," she chuckled to herself. She looked on as Pygmalion kissed his ivory woman and jumped back startled to find she was quite warm. After further inspection through touching her breasts and discovering a softness, he realized she was no longer made of ivory, but instead, flesh and bone.
Not long after, the two were married, an event which even Venus herself attended. "Venus, you have my gratitude eternally," said Pygmalion. Venus replied with a smile,"That is good, now next time you make a likeness of beauty, make her look more like me."
The woman so alike to that of the ivory figure that Pygmalion created bore a son for her and Pygmalion. This child was named Paphos, after whom the island they lived on took its name.
The woman so alike to that of the ivory figure that Pygmalion created bore a son for her and Pygmalion. This child was named Paphos, after whom the island they lived on took its name.
"It would not do to have this child be as beautiful as one which I would bear," said fair Venus, "but with a mother and father of such good looks, one can only assume that this son shall have no trouble in courting a wife one day." She smiled to herself, "Maybe he'll be cute enough to come after me."
Author's Note: In this story, I took the story of Pygmalion and retold it from a narrator's view of Venus looking upon Pygmalion. In this story, Pygmalion does not like the real women that surround him, so he creates a woman out of ivory and falls in love with her. He dresses her, kisses her, lays with her, speaks to her, and occasionally brings her different kinds of gifts. Still lonely however, he prays to Venus for "a bride that is like his ivory girl" and Venus brings his woman of ivory to life. He returns home to find her alive and breathing, fully in love with him. They then marry and have a son named Paphos. I also introduced some dialogue on Venus's end. This helped to further extend her vanity and view of herself as a beautiful being, while also adding a bit of comedic value. There is also a bit of a break in the dialogue, where Venus sometimes speaks more modernly, but sometimes speaks as in an older story. I used the more modern speech in cases where I thought it would sound a bit more like a very vain or prideful person in the modern world, to emphasize her vanity.
Bibliography:
- Laura Gibbs, Metamorphosis:Pygmalion, from https://sites.google.com/view/mythfolkloreanthology/metamorphosis
Hi Jacob! This was also the story I chose to rewrite for this assignment, but wow you did it so much better. I would have never thought to tell it from Venus's point of view, it's brilliant! My favorite aspect was the writing that made it sound like a story of today. Phrases like grossed out, or saying "make it look like me" made the story easy to digest and enjoyable to read. Great work!
ReplyDeleteHi Jacob, this was incredibly interesting to read. I think that the story written from Venus's point of view is genius. I liked that your vocabulary was both really modern and also at points traditional. I think it did a good job of capturing the story that you wanted to be telling. Awesome job!
ReplyDeleteHey Jacob, great story! Throughout the whole story, I was curious as to why Pygmalion hated women that he encountered in his daily life so much. Was it just their looks? Did he just like how his ivory woman liked compared to other women? If I was to do a take on this story, I think I would depict Pygmalion as a man that did not like women that were not completely submissive or had personalities that were too exuberant and that when his ivory woman became human, she continued to have a personality that was so subdued that it was almost like she was still just a statue under Pygmalion's control
ReplyDeleteHi Jacob! I like your take on the story, it is probably the 4th or 5th Pygmalion story that I have read during this course but somehow they are all SO different! The dialog that you added was very amusing and I enjoyed how you brought out the vain character of Venus. I can definitely say that you managed to do what you set out to do in your author's note.
ReplyDelete- Anna Margret