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| Pygmalion and Galatea, ca. 1890, Jean-Léon Gérôme |
Devoted himself to the pursuit of perfect beauty.
From ivory he fashioned a maiden
So flawless that he came to love the work of his own hands.
Day after day he adorned the silent figure,
Speaking to her as though life already stirred beneath her pale surface.
Moved by such devotion, foam-born Aphrodite heard his prayer,
And beneath his touch the statue awakened,
Cold ivory yielding at last to living flesh.
