Pygmalion

• Pygmalion is the Greek translation of Pumayyaton (831-785 BCE), the Phoenician King of Tyre.

Ovid

• Ovid in Book X of Metamorphoses, made the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea famous.
• He describes Pygmalion as a King and sculptor in Cyprus, who created a statute of a woman and then fell in love with it.
• Aphrodite then granted Pygmalion’s wish to bring the statue to life, and he married her. Their son was called Paphos, and the city in Cyprus is named after him.

George Bernard Shaw

• George Bernard Shaw retold the Myth in 1914 with a stage play called ‘Pygmalion’ first performed at the Hofburg Theatre in Vienna.
• He portrayed Pygmalion as Henry Higgins, a Professor of phonetics, falling in love with a flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, whom he transforms into an aristocrat.
• The story has since been retold in numerous Films and TV Shows.

DvD’s

• IMDb My Fair Lady (1964)
  • Hollywood Musical starring Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins and Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle.