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Pygmalion 1 is the king of Cyprus who fell in
love with a statue of his own making, kissed the
ivory statue, and thought the kisses were returned.
He talked to it with words of love, and brought to
it the kind of gifts that are thought to please
girls, such as shells and pebbles, little birds,
and flowers of all colors. Besides all this, he
also draped it with robes, put rings upon its
fingers, and a necklace around her neck. And by
night, Pygmalion 1 put the statue on a bed, called
it the consort of his bed, and rested its head upon
soft pillows.
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Aphrodite hears his
prayers
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Such was Pygmalion 1's life with the statue.
When the time came for the festival of
Aphrodite to be
celebrated, Pygmalion 1 visited it and prayed to
the goddess to have as wife one like his ivory
maid. Aphrodite
understood he did not mean one like his ivory maid,
but the ivory maid itself. So when Pygmalion 1
returned home and kissed his ivory statue, he
discovered it was warm as he was kissing not ivory
but flesh.
Pygmalion 1 married she who had been a statue,
and Aphrodite, who had
given life to it, came to the wedding. Pygmalion 1
himself was given a long life.
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