Pygmalion (1935 film)

Pygmalion is a 1935 German film based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion.

Cast

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Pygmalion (mythology)

Pygmalion (/pɪɡˈmeɪliən/; Greek: Πυγμαλίων, gen.: Πυγμαλίωνος) is a legendary figure of Cyprus. Though Pygmalion is the Greek version of the Phoenician royal name Pumayyaton, 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 Ovid

In Ovid's narrative, Pygmalion was a Cypriot sculptor who carved a woman out of ivory. According to Ovid, after seeing the Propoetides he was "not interested in women", but his statue was so fair and realistic that he fell in love with it.

In time, Aphrodite's festival day came, and Pygmalion made offerings at the altar of Aphrodite. There, too scared 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 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, ou La Statue de Chypre

Pygmalion, ou La Statue de Chypre (AKA Pygmalion, or The Cyprus Statue) is a ballet in 4 Acts-6 Scenes, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Prince Nikita Trubestkoi.

First presented by the Imperial Ballet on 23 December [O.S. 11 December] 1883 at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Myth

A myth is a traditional or legendary story, collection, or study. It is derived from the Greek word mythos (μῦθος), which simply means "story". Mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. A myth also can be a made up story to explain why something exists.

Academic usage

Generally associated with the academic fields of mythology, mythography or folkloristics, a myth can be a story involving symbols that are capable of multiple meanings. The body of a myth in any given culture usually includes a cosmogonical or creation myth, concerning the origins of the world, or how the world and its creatures came into existence. The active beings in myths are generally gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines or animals and plants. Most myths are set in a timeless past before recorded and critical history begins.

A myth is a sacred narrative in the sense that it holds religious or spiritual significance for those who tell it. Myths also contribute to and express systems of thoughts and values. Use of the term by scholars implies neither the truth nor the falseness of the narrative. To the source culture, however, a myth by definition is "true", in that it embodies beliefs, concepts and ways of questioning to make sense of the world.

Myth (disambiguation)

A myth is, broadly, any worldview-based traditional story, or collection or study thereof:

Myth (novel)

Myth ISBN 1-84386-267-0 is a dark erotic fantasy, the first novel by English writer R. J. Dent. It was published by Vanguard/Pegasus in July 2006.

Plot synopsis

The Greek island is beautiful and the holiday idyllic… until James Barratt and his girlfriend Penny Ward are told about the chimera, a savage creature that should only exist in Greek mythology, but somehow is still alive in the foothills of the island. Sceptical, but curious, they set off for the hills, where they come face to face with a monstrous secret and find themselves in a desperate fight for survival against an enemy of inconceivable ferocity – an unholy trinity with multiple hearts of darkness that will not stop until they are both destroyed.