Pygmalion and Galatea
Thornton:
176.30/174.8 PYGMALION AND GALATEA According to Greek myth, Pygmalion, King of Cyprus, fell in love with a beautiful statue, prayed to Aphrodite for such a wife, Aphrodite brought the statue to life, and Pygmalion married her. According to some versions, the statue was made by Pygmalion himself and was named Galatea. Bloom probably knows of this through W. S. Gilbert's play, Pygmalion and Galatea (1871), which played at the Queen's Royal Theatre, Dublin, in November, 1891.· In that play, Pygmalion, a sculptor, is married to a woman named Cynisca, who is jealous of the animated statue, Galatea; after considerable trouble, Galatea voluntarily returns to her original state.
Gifford:
8.924 (176:30). Pygmalion and Galatea
– In Greek mythology, Pygmalion, a sculptor and the king of Cyprus, fell in love with his own handwork, the ivory statue of a maiden. He prayed to Aphrodite, who breathed life into the statue (Galatea). The transformation was climaxed by the marriage of Pygmalion and Galatea. Pygmalion and Galatea is also the title of a popular play (1871) by Sir William S. Gilbert, a satire of sentimental-romantic attitudes toward myth. Gilbert's Galatea is born so innocent that she appears wayward and disrupts the lives she touches (including those of Mr. and Mrs. Pygmalion) during her less-than-twenty-four hours in the flesh.Kiberd:
224.34 Pygmalion and Galatea: Pygmalion, a sculptor in Greek myth, fell in love with Galatea, a statue of his own creation (T). Bloom often praises Molly's statuesque beauty.
Johnson:
168.13-14 Pygmalion and Galatea: Greek myth of the King of Cyprus who fell in love with an ivory statue of a woman (which he may or may not have sculpted); he asked Aphrodite to grant him such a woman and returned to find the statue had come to life. Also an 1871 verse play by Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836-1911) (of Gilbert and Sullivan fame), a satire in which Galatea, the statue-come-alive, disrupts the lives of Pygmalion, the sculptor, and his jealous wife, Cynisca (played at the Gaiety Theatre in Nov. 1891).