Man creates perfect woman out of stone. She becomes alive and they marry. Man finds common girl, turns her into a lady fit for a prince, and then falls in love with her. Man picks up a prostitute, molds her into a real lady, they live happily ever after. All these sure sound like Cinderella fairytales. But they all also have their roots in ancient Greek mythology, with the story or Pygmalion. First, there was the myth. Then someone wrote a book about it. Then there was a play. And then a movie. All of these were tremendously popular. Though the story was changed a bit each time, the myth, George Bernard Shaw’s book, and the films My Fair Lady and Pretty Woman all encompass the same theme: Man is not satisfied, he takes girl from nothing, turns her into perfect girl. Follow the formula, and bam!, a story that will entertain any audience and shape the dreams of little girls forever!

The idea of changing something or someone into an ideal being is of interest to many. Hard to believe that a film like Pretty Woman or a musical such as My Fair Lady is even loosely based on of all things, Greek mythology? Here is where these stories got their start. A sculptor nam

Both of these works, My Fair Lady and Pretty Woman, touch on the same theme as the myth of Pygmalion. Man is not happy. Man finds woman he can transform into hiss perfect woman. Man falls in love with woman. Woman becomes real. They live together happily ever after. Though it does sound a bit watered down, too much like Cinderella, it is much more than that. The difference is that the man must work terribly hard and suffer much in order to get what he wants. In the end, the rewards are sweet. So, were these plays and movies written just for pure entertainment? Were their authors just lazy and could not think of anything else to write about? Or was there a reason they chose to base their stories on such an ancient Greek myth? True, they did sell big at the box office. Maybe this was because the story they told was one that could be continually adapted and told to the next generation. The thought of taking nothing, and turning it into an ideal, perfect thing is probably something that men wish they could do and women wish could be done to them! And so, yes, there is some value to us in learning Greek mythology. It tells us of our deepest desires so that we may achieve them. By telling up to date versions of the story, people will continue to achieve things they never thought possible.

Costas and E. Switzer. 1988. Gods, Heroes, and Monsters: Their Sources, Their Stories, and Their Meanings. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Ovid, 1 A.D. Metamorphoses, 10:243-297. Originally published in Morf

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