Human Galatea

Galatea's name designates a perfect, beautiful woman who appears in Pygmalion's life and ends up giving meaning to her entire existence. Galatea is already human and blushes from her sculptor's kiss. Galatea falls in love so much that she becomes the sculptor's perfect wife and bears him two children.

But the Pygmalion myth also reflects the ancient achievements of Greek and Roman sculpture: at the time they were created, the works of Greek and Roman sculptors were arguably the most realistic representations of the human form ever produced. Without this crucial quality of perfect realism, it is unlikely that the Pygmalion myth would have been as popular as it was. Indeed, the myth itself can be seen as a celebration of such artistic achievement.