Pygmalion Group

Question:

paboo2007
paboo2007
Student
College - Freshman

What is the correct defination of pygmalion?

What is the definition of "pygmalion?"

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Posted by paboo2007 on Tuesday August 25, 2009 at 11:35 AM and tagged with defination, pygmalion.

Answers:

  1. thewritingteacher
    thewritingteacher Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    "Pygmalion" is not a thing to be defined, but rather the name of a character from ancient mythology. According to Ovid's Metamorphoses, Pygmalion was a sculptor who carved the image of a woman so beautiful that he fell in love with her and pleaded with Venus to turn the statue into a real woman. Venus was touched by his plea and granted his wish.

    George Bernard Shaw later used Pygmalion as the title of his book about the transformation of a young Cockney flowergirl into a highbrow woman of British society through the efforts of a linguist by the name of Henry Higgins. The play was later popularized as the musical and movie, My Fair Lady.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/metamorphoses-of-ovid/list-characters

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    Posted by thewritingteacher on Tuesday August 25, 2009 at 1:46 PM

  2. thompsos
    thompsos Teacher
    Middle School

    freedictionary.org defines "pygmalion" as: "(Greek mythology) a king who created a statue of a woman and fell in love with it; Aphrodite brought the sculpture to life as Galatea"  The term often refers to someone who "creates" another (as in Henry Higgins did to Eliza Doolittle in MY FAIR LADY) and then falls in love with him or her.

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    Posted by thompsos on Tuesday August 25, 2009 at 4:06 PM