Pygmalion illustrates the story of an artist who falls in love with his ivory statue. He prays to Venus, who transforms his statue into a real woman, and the island takes its name from their son. The story immediately after is the story of Cinyras and Myrrha, which opens with a warning about the immoral content within and that the listener should pay attention to the punishment that befalls the story’s evil characters. This contrast between a light and happy love story and one so disturbing it requires an ancient trigger warning is fascinating in the overall context of book 10.

 

In both stories, things happening in threes forebodes godly approval or disapproval: as Myrrha approaches the unknowing Cinyras, “Three times she stumbled/ at the edge of the threshold, and three times the owl/ Wailed out his cry to warn her…” This happens just before the incest that she is later punished for, a warning to both the character and reader. On the other hand, in Pygmalion’s story, after he prays to Venus, she “understood the prayer’s intention/ And showed her presence, with the bright flame leaping/ Thrice on the altar…” The use of the number three is used in the same way in both, but to drastically different effect.

 

The story directly preceding tells of two incidents of Venus’s anger: she transforms a group of murderous women into bulls, and disbelievers in her power into prostitutes. It is these very prostitutes that anger Pygmalion in the beginning of his story, leading him home to his ivory love. These three stories, and most of book 10, tell of Venus’s power, and how it could lead to destruction, even if she is not mentioned by name. In fact, Pygmalion is one of the only stories in which Venus plays a major role that has a happy ending, showing the destructive power of love.