With George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion coming to our stage this autumn, starring Bertie Carvel as Henry Higgins and Patsy Ferran as Eliza Doolittle, we take a look at the original Greek myth that inspired the play.
Author The Old Vic
Published 27/07/2023
THE SCULPTOR
In Greek mythology, Pygmalion was a sculptor living in the city of Amathus on Cyprus, according to Ovid’s version*. He had come to shut out the world around him, choosing instead to focus on his work.
THE SCULPTURE
Eventually Pygmalion decided to create his ideal woman out of ivory, a figure that was – in his eyes – a perfect representation that no real life woman could match up to. In later Renaissance retellings of the story, the statue was given a name – Galatea. Soon, Pygmalion found himself falling in love with Galatea, and would bring her gifts, shower her with kisses and treat her as if she were real, deceiving himself in the process.
THE TRANSFORMATION
The sculptor began to visit the goddess Aphrodite** in her temple, and pray that Galatea would become real. Aphrodite travelled to Cyprus and, impressed by Pygmalion’s skill, decided to give the creation life. Pygmalion returned home to find Galatea’s lips were warm, and they went on to wed and to have a daughter (or a son in some versions of the story), named Paphos.
THE PLAY
In 1913, George Bernard Shaw wrote the play Pygmalion, inspired by the Greek myth, about a professor of linguistics who makes a bet that he can transform the language and etiquette of a Covent Garden flower girl and pass her off as a lady at an ambassadors’ ball. He battles with his own creation not living up to his ideals. The play gave rise to many further adaptations from musical My Fair Lady to the nineties romcom She’s All That.
This autumn, a new production of Pygmalion comes to The Old Vic, directed by Olivier Award-winner Richard Jones.
*Ovid was a Roman poet who was born in 43 BC and lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature
**Aphrodite is the ancient Greek goddess of love, beauty and fertility. identified with Venus by the Romans.
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