The Myth of Pygmalion

Pygmalion is a mythological character of the Greek Cypriot culture, its history gave name to a recently studied psychological effect, it is the Pygmalion effect or the self-fulfilling prophecy, whose premise indicates that the expectations that one person has over another affect the achievement of a certain goal because of the strong desire that drives it.

For example, when a boxer is a favorite to be the winner in his next fight, he has a very high probability of achieving it, because the high expectation that people have about him makes him think himself a winner, he will adopt that behavior and his mental work will favor his participation. To this effect it is known in psychology as Pygmalion and its name is due to a legend whose narration I will do next.

Pygmalion was king of Cyprus and had great skills for sculpture, his statues were appreciated for being perfect, real and almost breathe, he was the best sculptor of his time, he dedicated all his time to art and never fell in love, all the women seemed of little beauty and was refused to marry. Many were the women who admired his work in art and flattered him seeking to capture his attention, but he only weighed in his statues, he saw women only as models for his sculptures but not as partners.

One night while Pygmalion was sleeping he appeared to her in dreams Aphrodite the goddess of love, she told that she felt dishonored by him, refusing to love a woman when there were so many who pretended to him, she ordered to choose one his wife if not she would do it for him . Pygmalion embarrassed asked her time to create his most important work, create a statue of the most beautiful woman ever seen in her honor and then marry. Aphrodite pleased and accepted time for her art.

The next morning Pygmalion went to the port and ordered to bring from Africa the finest and whitest ivory there was, he knew it would take several months to strike but he did not care. Once he had the ivory he dedicated himself to making sketches for his statues looking for the ideal position for his work, he was losing a lot of time and Aphrodite became impatient, he said that art can not rush and asked for more time to carry out his work.

A year later he began to work on the life-size statue, it was perfect, luminous and its beauty did not compare with that of any woman, its figure was realistic in all its details, the hair seemed to fall naturally, its eyes seemed to look and you could see the light of day in them, your lips invited to kiss, it was more than a statue a woman immobile. Pygmalion was impressed by his own creation, he kept looking at it, he thought it would come alive at any time, if he had not made it with ivory he would think that it was a real woman, the most beautiful of all.

He kissed it and felt reciprocated, in his mind he could hear it say sweet and wise words, he always thought of it, when he looked at the sea he saw it eyes, when he saw the flowers he thought about it lips, he wrapped it in dresses and jewels, he put a ring on it finger and gave it flowers every day. I call her Galatea and it slept with her in her bed every night.

Aphrodite scoffed at the man who despised every woman in front of him and who had finally fallen in love with a statue, but according to the agreement he asked Pygmalion if he had found a woman to marry, to which he replied that he had. found, it was his sculpture and asked him to give it life, because he could not love any other woman.

Aphrodite knew that Pygmalion's heart had finally fallen in love and had honored her by doing so, so she decided to grant her wish. Pygmalion ran to see Galatea, found it motionless as always and cried unconsolably, took his delicate hand and caressed it, little by little felt softness and warmth in his fingers, the hard statue was becoming soft, it color was going from white Ivory to a flushed and warm skin. The sculpture began to move, dropping its long hair on its back, opened its eyes and looked at it, it was alive and its life made Pygmalion the happiest man that ever walked in the world.

He married Galatea and discovered that she was not a perfect woman, because no person is, perfection was only in her eyes that looked at her with love.