Post on 18-Jan-2023
In the Metamorphoses, Ovid’s intention is to tell of bodies
changed.1 The stories in one form or another mention
transformation. Change and transformation is the principal
theme in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Many of the changes relate to
nature, for example: the change into animals, springs, trees
and flowers; but nothing is more prevalent than the
transformation into stone. Stone in Ovid’s Metamorphoses is
referred to with many names: saxum, scopulus, pertis, terra, lapids, silex
and tophus are some of the words Ovid uses to describe the
stone of his petrified land. From vast mountains to small
pebbles in springs, the idea of rocks, stone or petrification
is prevalent and very important within the poem. Not only does
Ovid use stone as a means of metamorphoses and to describe the
Mediterranean landscape that is so extensive and so
significant, he also uses it in terms of life, beauty, art,
architecture, and on occasion even as a punishment or the
consequence of grief. The many metamorphoses in Ovid are very
anomalous and usually result in a change from human to plant, 1 Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans Rolf Humphries (Indiana University Press, 1955), 3.
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animal, water, or stone. There are rarely cases of plants, or
animals changing into human figure, except in regard to stone.
Despite the fact that there are many transmutations into stone,
the first recount is actually the inverse, from stone to human.
Very similar to the story of Pygmalion, the story of Deucalion and
Pyrrha foretells the countless permutations and brings forth the
importance of stone throughout the Metamorphoses. This essay
will first cover many of the occurrences of stone and how they
relate to transformations, life, beauty or art and then will
use the stories of Deucalion and Pyrrha and Pygmalion to argue that
the transformation into stone or its inverse is the most
important theme in the
Metamorphoses and that the relationship between life, beauty art
and stone are all connected. Furthermore this essay will
discuss the relationship between art, beauty and stone using
the story of Pygmalion and its similarities with the story of
Narcissus, and examine how Pygmalion’s desire for Galatea has
very little to do with her as a woman and everything to do with
his infatuation with the idealized image of women and his own
craft; ultimately his infatuation with himself.
2
Beginning with book one, the first mention of stone is
when the gods made the rocky mountains and Deucalion and Pyrrha
fashioned human beings out of stones. In book two Jealousy who
inhabited a cold stone cave petrified Aglauros upon Minerva’s
orders.
“The cold of winter came into her lungs, her heart. Her neck
was stone, her features hard as marble. A lifeless statue sat
there, and the statue was black, not white, dark with her evil
spirit.”2 This is another example of the relationship between
art and stone. She became a statue, a work of art that shows
her true evil self; just as artists do with their work, show
themselves through their craft. Book three mentions how stone
is like art and its connection to architecture, as well as the
description of how Echo withers away and her bones are turned
to a mold of stone. Also how Narcissus stands motionless like
a statue of white marble over his own reflection. “Tightly
fitted stones made a low archway…Gargaphie, its name was, and
it held deep in its inner shade a secret grotto made by no art,
unless you think of Nature as being an artist. Out of rock and2 Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans Rolf Humphries (Indiana University Press, 1955), 54
3
tufa she had formed and archway.”3 This brings together art
and nature, and stone and art, by using architecture as a means
of connection, similarly to using a statue as a means of
connection. In book four there are more incidents of
transformation into stone or statues, but one, although not
really a transformation is reminiscent of the transformation
from stone to human form. In the story of Salmacis the
reoccurring theme of beauty and stone or having statuesque
features continues, “ But blushing was almost becoming. Apples
have such color in the sunny orchards, or ivory, when tinted…
she was ready to throw her arms around his snowy neck.”4
Although there are many more instances of the change into
stone, these are the most prevalent ones and the ones that most
closely relate to art, beauty and life comparable to the
stories of Pygmalion and Deucalion and Pyrrha.
Beginning with book one in the Metamorphoses, the first
mention of transformation from stone to human is the story of
Deucalion and Pyrrha. After the flood, the only two surviving
humans are Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha. The only land not 3 Ibid. 58, 624 Ibid.92
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overtaken by the flood was Mount Parnassus where the couple
went to pray and worship the Corycian nymphs and Themis. Jove
witnessed their scrupulous reverence and with the help of
Neptune banished all the water leaving a desolate, empty world.
Knowing that they were the last people on earth they wept
together and went to the temple of Themis to pray. They then
both fell to the stone steps and asked,
“ If the gods’ anger ever listens to righteous prayers, O
Themis, we implore you, tell us by what device our wreck
and ruin may be repaired. Bring aid, most gentle goddess,
to sunken circumstances.”5
The gods responding to their prayers told them to “ Go from the
temple, cover your heads, loosen your robes and throw your
mother’s bones behind you!”6 The couple was taken aback by
this request; they did not understand the meaning, finally
though Deucalion understood. The earth itself, the rocks and
clay are the bones of their mother. Both of them immediately
began throwing rocks over their shoulders and behind them
figures resembling the human form sprang from the rocks.
5 Ibid.146 Ibid.14
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“The stones began to lose their hardness, to soften,
slowly, to take on form, to grow in size, a little, become
less rough, to look like human beings, or anyway as much
like human beings as statues do, when the sculptor is only
starting, images half blocked out.”7
This passage is one of the first instances of stone, life and
art relating to each other. The rocks of the earth became the
human race connecting nature to life and stone to life. A
story of creation and origin, Ovid emphasizes the meaning of
stone and how essential stoniness is to human beings. The
human race was born from stone and often they will return back
into stone. These beings that turn to stone lose their
identities, this petrification is a type of death.
Additionally, the figures that become stone monuments or
statues must endure this forever; they are not really dead,
just changed, or returned back to what they came from. The
mention of humans resembling statues will come up again and
again throughout the many stories in the Metamorphoses. Because
stone has such an important function in the poem, and is
brought up numerous times; Ovid uses this story to provide the
7 Ibid.5
6
reader with the necessary vocabulary and as a foreshadowing of
what is to come.8 This moment when Deucalion and Pyrrha
fashion life from the earth has been depicted many times by
many different artists. One that relates most to this argument
and depicts the story with relation to art and sculpture is the
painting by Domenico Beccafumi, Deucalion and Pyrrha (1517)
(Figure 1).
The image shows Deucalion and Pyrrha in a beautiful but
bleak landscape wearing only light coverings, almost nude. The
ground is bare except for sporadically placed rocks. Behind
them in the background stands a building, the temple of Themis.
As the stones are tossed behind them many figures of different
shapes and sizes are visible. Some smaller, look to almost be
children still growing out of the earth and others fully grown
human beings. Two of the figures resemble statues; they are
clearly visible over the others due to their contrapposto
stance, their light marble colored skin and full nude bodies.
Their resemblance of statues is necessary for the painting 8 Douglas F Bauer. “The Function of Pygmalion in the Metamorphoses of Ovid.” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. 93, (January 1, 1962): 1-21.
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because Ovid makes it clear that these figures resembled
statues and the artists took that into consideration. Although
there are figures that bear a resemblance to statues, what was
left out of the painting were the half finished bodies, the
blocked out bodies as if a sculptor was just beginning his
work. As mentioned in the story the figures only looked like
humans, as statues do, half finished. These bodies in the
painting are fully developed and even grow out of the earth in
the human form. The one thing that really relates to the idea
and importance of stone is the depiction of the statuesque
bodies within the painting. Taking into consideration the
artists retelling of this story it is very accurate and depicts
the couple and the theme quit well, but it fails to pay close
attention to the wording of the story; but still brings forth
that connection between art and stone by depicting the humans
in relation to statues. Just as the story of Deucalion and Pyrrha
relate to stone, nature, life, beauty and art, so does the
story of Pygmalion.
This idea of stones taking the human form and resembling
statues relates to the ideas of art and life and connects the
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idea of petrification and the important role it plays
throughout the stories. These depictions of humans resembling
statues references the story of Pygmalion and how he created the
perfect woman out of ivory who then metamorphosed from a statue
into a living human. The story of Pygmalion is in book ten of
the Metamorphoses. Before one is able to fully understand this
story, the Two Incidents of Venus’ Anger must be carefully read. On
the island of Cyprus there was an altar for the daughters of
the town of Amathus. This altar was sacred to Jove, the god of
host and guest, but the daughters did not treat their visitors
with the same courtesy, they killed any visitor who came to
their altar. This offended Venus and so she decided to
transform the wicked girls into bulls. This angered the wicked
girls’ sisters and they would no longer acknowledge Venus.
This again angered Venus and she made whores of them, the first
women to ever sell their bodies. This shame hardened them
until finally they turned to stone. All the while this
happened, Pygmalion witnessed it. He saw the foul Propoetides
leading their shameful lives and was shocked at their behavior.
9
He decided to live alone and have no women in his bed, leading
him to create a perfect woman out of ivory.
Many scholars have written theories about the story of
Pygmalion and what his ivory statue may refer to. The Pygmalion
story has taken many forms; it can be read as a story of
artistic and sexual triumph,9 the ability to inspire art and
lust,10 as a story of masculine desire that is largely self
referential,11 a fable of a miracle, of art, love and of a
better human being,12 and art as an imitation of nature and the
power of art to create rather than to portray.13 These
different theories bring up many different points and opinions
about the story, but they all relate to the idea of creating
art as a means to fulfill and satisfy Pygmalion’s need. As
well as conjure up ideas about, stone and the important
function it holds throughout the poem. They relate to art, 9 Stephen Guy-Bray. “Beddoes, Pygmalion, and the Art of Onanism.” Nineteenth-Century Literature. 52, (March 1, 1998): 446-47010 Essaka Joshua, Pygmalion and Galatea: The History of a Narrative in English Literature. Burlington: Ashgate, 2001.11 Martin A. Danahay. “Mirrors of Masculine Desire: Narcissus and Pygmalion in Victorian Representation.” Victorian Poetry. 32, (April 1, 1994): 35-54.12 Nigel Llewellyn. “Illustrating Ovid.” Ovid Renewed: Ovidian Influences on Literature and Art from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century. Charles Martindale. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. 151-166.13 E. H. Gombrich. Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation. Washington D.C.: Pantheon Books, 1960.
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lust, sexual triumph, masculine desire and creation, all of
which correspond to the story of Narcissus, and his obsession
with his beauty and his own reflection. In a sense Pygmalion’s
Galatea is a form of his own reflection, he created her with
his artistic ability resembling what his perfect woman would
look like. The skillfully sculpted statue complicates the
tension between creator and created, life and art and what is
real or what is ideal.14
According to Ovid, the Propoetides repulsed Pygmalion; was
he disgusted by their actions, or was he intimidated by their
sexual freedom? Either way this led Pygmalion to fashion a
woman out of ivory, his very own girl. He created her to look
like what he believed the ideal woman would look like. Ivory
gave the statue a softer more flesh like appearance, and ivory
is much warmer than hard, cold marble. This woman that he so
dearly loved was his personal possession. As an artist
Pygmalion was able to use his skill to create a woman for
himself.
14 Bonnie Roos. “Refining the Artist into Existence: Pygmalion’s Statue, Stephen’s Villanelle and the Venus of Praxiteles.” Comparative Literature Studies.38, (2001): 95-117.
11
“Meanwhile he made, with marvelous art an ivory statue, as
white as snow, and gave it greater beauty than any girl
could have, and fell in love with his own workmanship.
The image seemed that of a virgin, truly, almost living,
and willing, save the modesty prevented, to take on
movement. The best art, they say, is that which conceals
art, and so Pygmalion marvels, and loves the body he has
fashioned.”15
This quote emphasizes the idea that Pygmalion is not so much in
love with the statue as he is in love with his creation, his
own performance, and his artistry. Galatea becomes the perfect
receiver of his desires and in a sense is a mirrored reflection
of himself; he sees what he wants when looking at his
masterpiece, he sees perfection. This is similar to Narcissus
when looking at his own reflection. He only sees his beauty,
no flaws, and no imperfections.
The story of Narcissus tells of a young beautiful boy only
interested in himself. He would let no boy or girl near him,
one day while hunting he discovered a spring in the woods, in
it his reflection. He did not recognize himself and so he
15 Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans Rolf Humphries. Bloomington & Indiana: IndianaUniversity Press, 1955. 242.
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became infatuated with the boy in the water. Not knowing his
own reflection he fell in love with it.
“Deep within him, another thirst was growing, for he saw
an image in the pool, and fell in love with that unbodied
hope, and found a substance in what was only shadow. He
looks in wonder, charmed by himself, spell bound, and no
more moving than any marble statue. In the fair
whiteness, everything attracts him that makes him so
attractive. Foolish boy, he wants himself; the loved
becomes the lover, the seeker sought, the kindler
burns.”16
Mentioned in this passage is how Narcissus resembled a statue
and how beautiful he looked to himself. The beauty in
resembling stone is one of the themes in this essay and a
theme that occurs numerous times throughout the poem.
Narcissus not only looked like stone, but a statue. A work of
art created from the earth to be viewed and admired, to be
beautiful. Such self-involved desire is known by the name
Narcissus; if someone is narcissistic it is obvious what that
refers to. It refers to the self-involved desire Narcissus
possessed. This self-involved desire is notable in the story
16 Ibid.70
13
of Pygmalion. Many of the themes that occur throughout the
Narcissus story are present in Pygmalion’s story. The only
difference is instead of loving his own reflection he loves
his statue, which is a type of self-reflection.
Pygmalion rejects nature’s women and creates his own ideal
version. Ovid notes that the statue posses “greater beauty
than any girl could have.”17 This unattainable beauty places
the statue at a level similar to a goddess, not a mortal.
Once he finished creating a perfect ideal woman, Pygmalion
fell in love. He loves the perfection of the statue and the
masterpiece he has created, not the woman portrayed. Ovid
carefully describes the way in which Pygmalion cared for his
art, he gently caressed her body comparing it to actual flesh.
“He would often move his hands to test and touch it, could
this be flesh or was it ivory only? No it could not be
ivory. He kisses, he fancies, she returns, he speaks to
her, hold her, believes his fingers almost leave an
imprint on her limbs, and fears to bruise her.”18
17 Ibid.24218 Ibid.242
14
Pygmalion also took his work of art to bed with him,
indicating a sexual relationship with himself, his ideal image
of women and his own mastery in the art of sculpting.19
The holiday for Venus resulted in the transformation of
the statue into a living woman. Pygmalion attended the
celebrations and asks Venus for a wife similar to his ivory
statue. Venus understood the prayer’s intention and when
Pygmalion returned home and placed the statue in his bed she
began to soften.
“Pygmalion came back where the maiden lay, and lay beside
her, And kissed her, and she seemed to glow, and kissed
her, and stroked her breast, and felt the ivory soften
under his fingers, as wax grows soft in sunshine, made
pliable by handling. And over and over touches the body
with his hands. It is a body! The veins throb under the
thumb. And oh, Pygmalion is lavish in his prayer and
praise to Venus.”20
The story concludes with his beautiful maiden bearing a child
named Paphos, from whom the island later takes its name. The
story of Pygmalion outlines many of the points hopefully coming
19 Patricia Salzman-Mitchell. “A Whole Out of Pieces: Pygmalion’s Ivory Statue in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.” Arethusa. 41, (2008): 291-311.20 Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans Rolf Humphries. Bloomington & Indiana: IndianaUniversity Press, 1955. 242.
15
through in this essay. It correlates to the ideas of
perfection and the ideal, while relating everything back to the
connection between, petrification, life, beauty and art. This
theme is very popular among artists, and many have rendered
Pygmalion’s story. Many depictions have portrayed him longing
for his statue, staring at it or praising it. The imagery
often shows him giving the statue gifts, treating it like a
goddess similar to Venus with her naked form and highest degree
of beauty. Others portray him in his studio working on the
sculpture, analyzing it while he attempts to create the ideal,
perfect woman. The artists Paul Delvaux altered the imagery
while still portraying the important issues that have been
mentioned so often in this essay.
Paul Delvaux’s painting Pygmalion (1939) (Figure 2),
contrasts with his contemporary surrealists who often depicted
antiquity with violent and radical incongruity. Delvaux
depicts antiquity with grisaille monuments against a gradient
background, vast public spaces of the Roman world with almost
interminable perspective, fantastical classical architecture
and the female nude. Like his Pygmalion, Delvaux’s women are
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the transcendent metaphor of antiquity.21 Many of Delvaux’s
works depict classical themes including sculpture and
architecture. His rendition of Pygmalion display many of the
classical elements noted, while still incorporating the
metaphysical and surreal concepts of his work.
Delvaux’s Pygmalion depicts the story quite accurately,
although there is one main difference; Delvaux’s Pygmalion
illustrates an inversion of the story. It is Pygmalion himself
that has become petrified and placed on a wooden box, while his
statue, his Galatea has been metamorphosed into a voluptuous,
living woman. Pygmalion and Galatea are located in the
foreground of the painting, enticing the gaze from the viewer
directly to them. The colors of the painting are neutral and
earthy, ranging from dark brown to light blue. The only two
colors that seem out of place are associated with the female
figure and the flâneur in the middle ground, which will be
discussed later.
Galatea’s fleshy body is delicately and languorously
wrapped around Pygmalion. Her face looks in his direction and 21 Phillip Jockey, Delvaux and Antiquity (Brussels: Royal Museum of Fine Arts Belgium, 2010) 119
17
her eyes appear to be directed towards his, but on closer
observation it is noted that she seems to be gazing through
him, or just past him. Unlike Galatea, the fleshy living
figure, Pygmalion is a mutilated statue. He is smaller than
Galatea and is void of limbs. His grisaille figure stands in
the arms of Galatea, but the statue is doleful. His eyes look
directly into Galatea’s eyes, exuding his sense of longing,
almost as if he is vaguely aware of his transformation. The
shadow cast by the couple manifests back into the original
story, Pygmalion embracing Galatea. The right figure in the
shadow is bigger and more masculine than the depicted figure
whose hair is tied up in a bun. The inversion of the story may
relate to the idea that Pygmalion has only fallen in love with
his own work, that he would never have been fully fulfilled if
it were to be a real woman. That ultimately his ability to
create an ideal woman was not what he actually wanted and
either way one of them would always have been idealized. It
also relates to the main theme of the essay, which is the
importance of stone and the idea that metamorphoses occurs from
stone to human and vice versa.
18
The landscape is desolate with muted shades of brown,
while the L-shaped building frames the couple and interrupts
the endless perspective that leads the viewer’s eyes to a body
of water. The beach and the sea blend with the sky, keeping
with the neutral color palette. Boulders and pebbles are
scattered on the ground, reminiscent of the story of Deucalion
and Pyrrha. Ovid recounts,
“Deucalion saw the world, all desolation, all emptiness,
all silence…The earth is out great mother, and I suppose
those bones the goddess mentions are the stones of the
earth; the order means to throw them, the stones behind
us.” 22
This quote relates to the painting in many ways. The painting
shows a desolate world with rocks strewn about the ground. The
rocks are the bones of the earth that will become human.
Galatea and Pygmalion are both products of this story, Galatea
who was once stone is now all flesh and Pygmalion now looks to
be human, though only as much as statues do. Although the
landscape looks desolate and gives the feeling of emptiness, it
is far from empty.
22 Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans Rolf Humphries. Bloomington & Indiana: IndianaUniversity Press, 1955.
19
In the middle ground there are two figures, interlopers
who invade the private and intimate moment between the two
would be lovers. The female figure is also nude, but is
adorned with plants. A pink flower blossoms from her leg, and
her head is covered with leaves. The pink flower and green
leaves are the only colors other than the neutral blues and
browns. She casually walks through the painting with one palm
up, without a glance toward the prominent figures. The man,
the flâneur, also casually saunters through the image with his
back towards the viewer. He wears a black bowler hat, a black
suit and carries a cane, similar to other men depicted in
street paintings of Paris, also known as a man who walks the
city observing society. Although at home on a city street, he
looks out of place in this setting. Nevertheless, Delvaux
clearly placed this man in the painting for a specific reason.
It could be to bring the present to the viewer, to place them
in the now. Or the man could even relate to the viewers
themselves, placing them in the intimate moment between
lovers.23 23 Phillip Jockey, Delvaux and Antiquity (Brussels: Royal Museum of Fine Arts Belgium, 2010)
20
Delvaux’s painting deconstructs the story of Pygmalion.
By creating his own version of the work he was able to
manipulate themes and ideas while still holding on to the main
overall feeling of the story. The inversion of the story
relates to the theme of transformation form nature back to
nature, and his rendering of the statue relates back to the
ideal and perfection that is tied to art and creating sculpture
out of stone.
The Metamorphoses overall theme and main focus has been
transformation and change. Although many of the
transformations connect nature with human form, nothing is more
prevalent or more important than the transformation into stone
or the transformation from stone to human form. The stories of
Deucalion and Pyrrha and Pygmalion are only two out of many whose
main focus is the importance of stone, and how importance it is
in relation to life, beauty and art. Humans were created out
of the rocks of the earth, and often will change back into what
they came from, be it as a punishment, despair or art. The
notion that stone and beauty go hand in hand is also very
popular in the poem and connects back to the importance of
21
stone and its relationship with beauty, art and creation. The
idea of perfection, or the ideal is only found in art and is
what many artists strive to create. Overall, stone is a
metaphor for the ideal, perfection, beauty, life and art.
22
Bibliography
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Danahay A Martin. “Mirrors of Masculine Desire: Narcissus and Pygmalion in Victorian Representation.” Victorian Poetry. 32, (April 1, 1994): 35-54.
Gombrich H., E. Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation. Washington D.C.: Pantheon Books, 1960.
Guy-Bray, Stephen. “Beddos, Pygmalion, and the Art of Onanism.” Nineteenth-Century Literature. 52, (March 1, 1998): 446-470.
Hersey, George L. Falling in Love With Statues. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2009.
Jockey, Philip. Delvaux and Antiquity. Brussels: Royal Museum of Fine Arts Belgium, 2010.
Joshua, Essaka. Pygmalion and Galatea: The History of a Narrative in English Literature. Burlington: Ashgate, 2001.
Llewellyn, Nigel. “Illustrating Ovid.” Ovid Renewed: Ovidian Influences on Literature and Art from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century.Charles Martindale. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. 151-166.
Miller, Jane M. “Some Versions of Pygmalion.” Ovid Renewed: Ovidian Influences on Literature and Art from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century. Charles Martindale. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1988. 205-214.
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Moorjani, Angela. The Aesthetics of Loss and Lessness. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992.
Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans Rolf Humphries. Bloomington & Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1955.
Roos, Bonnie. “Refining the Artist into Existence: Pygmalion’sStatue, Stephen’s Villanelle and the Venus of Praxiteles.” Comparative Literature Studies. 38, (2001): 95-117.
Salzman-Mitchell, Patricia. “A Whole Out of Pieces: Pygmalion’s Ivory Statue in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.” Arethusa. 41, (2008): 291-311
26