The
originalmyth derives from Ancient Greece. The most famous version is told by the Roman poet Ovid
in his Metamorphoses.
In Ovid's story, the sculptor
Pygmalion creates a statue of woman that is so beautiful he wishes it would come to life so he
could marry it. He prays to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, to give him a living woman as a wife
who is just like his beautiful statue. When he arrives back home, he kisses the statue and
realizes it has come to life. Aphrodite has answered his prayer, and he is able to marry the
statue-turned-woman, which he does. The statue/woman is named Galatea.
If the
story seems to reduce a woman to the status of an objecta statue come to lifethat would be a
valid observation and one Shaw perhaps had in mind when he wrote his play, as Henry Higgins
regards Eliza as little more than a "thing" he can experiment with and treat however
badly he wishes.
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