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.

1

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

4

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

5

“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.

7

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

8

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.

10

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.

12

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

16

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

Figure 1: Domenico Beccafumi, Deucalion and Pyrrha (1517)

23

Figure 2: Paul Delvaux, Pygmalion (1939)

24

Bibliography

Bauer, Douglas F. “The Function of Pygmalion in the Metamorphoses of Ovid.” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. 93, (January 1, 1962): 1-21.

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.

25

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