Pygmalion

Overview

In Greek and Roman myth the sculptor of Cyprus who falls in love with the statue he carves and whom Aphrodite brings to life (Ovid, Metamorphoses X; en.wikipedia «Pygmalion (mythology)»).

Relevance to Marie

In a flirtatious conversation of 2 July 1874 with a young count (perhaps at Spa), she says: «Cependant Pygmalion anima la statue» (020.0514). He answers that he does not love the beauty of statues but living, thinking beauty (020.0515). The myth is her retort to his remark about statue-like beauty.

A second tag, 025.0154 (6 November 1874), is a different thing: to a friend's «Où donc ma chère ?» (the Howard girls had just bought jet capes), the answer is «Au Pygmalion», and the context shows a shop, not the myth. We could not find a shop of that name in the sources searched (the searches found Paris department stores, none of that name). That tag was removed in the stub-pass apply (2026-10-22); an RSR note on the paragraph names the shop.

References in Diary

• 1874-07-02 (020.0514)

Sources

en.wikipedia «Pygmalion (mythology)» (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_(mythology)).