Pygmalion (play) Pygmalion (play) Pygmalion is a play by George Bernard Shaw, named after a Greek mythological figure. It was first presented on stage to the public in 1913. In ancient Greek mythology, Pygmalion fell in love with one of his sculptures, which then came to life. The general idea of that myth was a popular subject for Victorian era English playwrights, including one of Shaw's influences, W. S. Gilbert, who wrote a successful play based on the story called "Pygmalion and Galatea" that was first presented in 1871. Shaw would also have been familiar with the burlesque version, "Galatea, or Pygmalion
Galatea (mythology) writer. No extant ancient text mentions the statue's name, although Pausanias mentions a statue of Calm, Galene (γαλήνης). As late as 1763, a sculpture of the subject shown by Falconet at the Paris Salon ("illustration") carried the title "Pygmalion aux pieds de sa statue qui s'anime" ("Pygmalion at the feet of his statue that comes to life"). That sculpture, currently at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, now bears the expected modern title "Pygmalion and Galatea". According to Meyer Reinhold, the name "Galatea" was first given wide circulation in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "scène lyrique" of 1762, "Pygmalion". The name had become