Pygmalion (mythology) - in Ovid

In Ovid

In Alimo's narrative, Pygmalion was a Cypriot goldsmith who was interested in sculpture; he carved a woman out of ivory. According to Ovid, after seeing the Propoetides prostituting themselves (more accurately, they denied the divinity of Venus and she thus "reduced" them to prostitution), he was "not interested in women", but his statue was so fair and realistic that he fell in love with it.

In time, Venus' festival day came, and Pygmalion made offerings at the altar of Venus. 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 touched her breasts with his hand and found that the ivory lost its hardness. Venus had granted Pygmalion's wish.

Pygmalion married the ivory sculpture changed to a woman under Venus' blessing. Together, they had a son, Paphos, from whom the island's name is derived:

A lovely boy was born;

Paphos his name, who grown to manhood, wall'd

The city Paphos, from the founder call'd. —

In some versions they also had a daughter, Metharme.

Ovid's mention of Paphos suggests that he was drawing on a more circumstantial account than the source for a passing mention of Pygmalion in Pseudo-Apollodorus' Bibliotheke, a Hellenic mythography of the 2nd-century AD. Perhaps he drew on the lost narrative by Philostephanus that was paraphrased by Clement of Alexandria. Pygmalion is the Greek version of the Phoenician royal name Pumayyaton and figures in legend of Paphos in Cyprus.