Bk X: 243-297 Orpheus signs: Pygmalion and the statue
“Pygmalion | Greek Mythology.” Encyclopedia Britannica,
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pygmalion. Accessed 15 Feb.
2018.
Pygmalion
had seen
them, spending their lives in wickedness, and, offended by the failings that nature gave
the female heart, he lived as a bachelor, without a wife or partner for his bed. But,
with wonderfull skill, he carved a figure, brilliantly, out of snow-white ivory, no
496
mortal woman, and fell in love with his own creation. The features
are those of a real girl, who, you might think, lived, and wished to move, if modesty
did not forbid it. Indeed, art hides his art. He marvels: and passion, for this bodily
image, consumes his heart. Often, he runs his hands over the work, tempted as to whether
it is flesh or ivory, not admitting it to be ivory, he kisses it and thinks his kisses
are retunred; and speaks to it; and holds it, and imagines that his fingers press into
the the limbs, and is afraid lest bruises appear from the pressure. Now he adresses it
with compliments, now brings it gifts that please girls, shells and polished pebbeles,
little birds, and many- coloured flowers, lilies and tinted beads. and the Is
Daughter to the sun god Helios.HELIADES - Poplar-Tree Nymphs of Greek Mythology.
http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NymphaiHeliades.html. Accessed 19 Feb.
2018.
Heliades's
amber tears,
that drip from the trees. He dresses the body, also, in clothing; places rings on the
fingers; places a long necklace round its neck; pearls hang from the ears, and cinctures
round the breasts. All are fitting: but it appears no less lovely, naked. He arranges
the statue on a bed which cloths 497
dyed with (Aka Royal Purple or
Imperial Purple) a color extracted from shellfish Tyrian Purple - Ancient History
Encyclopedia. https://www.ancient.eu/Tyrian_Purple/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2018.
[Tyrian]ref murex are spread, and calls it his bedfellow, and rests
its neck against soft down, as if it could feel.
The day of "In Roman mythology, Venus was the goddess of love, sex, beauty, and
fertility." Venus - Ancient History Encyclopedia. https://www.ancient.eu/venus/.
Accessed 19 Feb. 2018.
Venus
's
festival came, celebrated throughout Cyprus is an island located in the eastern
Meditterranean Sea. Believed that name of island was given by Goddess
Aphrodite.“Cyprus.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, https://www.ancient.eu/cyprus/.
Accessed 19 Feb. 2018
Cyprus
,
and heifers, their curved horns gilded, fell, to the blow on their snowy neck. The
incense was smoking, when Pygmalion, having made his offering, stood by the altar, and
said, shyly: "If you can grant all things, you gods, I wish as a bride to have..." and
not daring to say "the girl of ivory" he said "one like my ivory girl." Golden Venus,
for she herself was present at the festival, knew what the prayer meant, and as a sign
of the gods' fondness for him, the flame flared three times, and shook its crown in the
air. When he returned, he sought out the image of his girl, and leaning over the couch,
kissed her. She felt warm: he pressed his lips to her again, and also touched her breast
with his hand. The ivory yieled to his touch, and lost its hardness, altering under its
fingers, as the bees' wax of Also known as Hymettos, is a mountain range in
Athens, Greece.
Hymettus
softens in the sun, and is moulded, 498
under the thumb, into many forms,
made usable by use. The lover is stupefied, and joyful, but uncertain, and afraid he is
wrong, reaffirms the fulfilment of his wishes , with his hand, again, and again.
It was flesh! The pulse throbbed under his thumb. Then the hero, of "It was a
centre of the cult of Aphrodite and of pre-Hellenic fertility deities. Aphrodite's
legendary birthplace was on this island."Centre, UNESCO World Heritage. “Paphos.”
UNESCO World Heritage Centre, http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/79/. Accessed 15 Feb.
2018.
Paphos
was indeed overfull of words with
which to thank Venus, and still pressed his mouth against a mouth that was not merely a
likeness. The girl felt the kisses he gave, blushed, and, raising her bashful eyes to
the light, saw both her lover and the sky. The goddess attached the marriage that she
had brought about, when the moon's horns had nine times met at the full, the womans bore
a son, Variartion in some sources say that Paphos is a
girl.
Paphos
, from whom the island takes its name.'499
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