Galatea is a short story written by Madeline Miller. You may recognize the name because I’ve already reviewed two other books (The Song of Achilles, Circe) by Madeline Miller. She is one of my all-time favorite authors. I first read The Song of Achilles in 2011 when it was first released and that’s how I learned about her. Later on, I learned in 2018 that she was releasing Circe. In between those two, she released Galatea in 2013. The minute that I learned she had another book on Greek mythology, I automatically picked it up to read it.
Galatea is a short story set in Ancient Greece. It’s about the marble sculptor, Pygmalion. He sculpted his most beautiful sculpture yet of a woman, he ended up falling in love with her. He begged the gods to turn her into a human so that he could love her as a human. He was blessedly a goddess and she came to life and became his wife. After coming to life, she is expected to be obedient and docile. But it’s not long before she’s using her beauty to her advantage to run away from her husband with their daughter. Because she tried to run away, Pygmalion locks her under the supervision of doctors, but she’s soon breaking free to rescue her daughter, and she’s willing to do anything to set her daughter free.
One thing that I was great about this book is the fact that it’s a very short read. I keep calling it a book but it’s honestly a short story. I finished it quickly and despite all of this it didn’t seem like the story was rushed or that Miller was pushing to get the whole story out. It felt just right, if the story had continued any longer it would’ve felt like the story was dragging. But with the length of this story, it didn’t feel that way at all, it felt like the perfect amount.
Another thing that I appreciated was the expansion of the Greek myth. I already knew when reading this story that I loved Madeline Miller’s other works based on Greek myths so I knew this one was going to be good. I also only knew the bare minimum about this myth. I knew that a sculptor was in love with a statue of a woman that he made and that one day she was turned into an actual woman. I’ve never thought about it in depth or thought about how weird it was that this man was in love with a statue, it’s just one of those Greek myth things. But seeing the way the myths come to life under Miller’s writings is one of my favorite things and she seems to characterize the people so well and it’s just one of my favorite parts of her writings.
In the story, Miller gave Pygmalion and Galatea a child. I’ve never heard of the myth with a child resulting from their union so it was an interesting thing to see and it added another dimension to both characters. An interesting thing that Miller wrote about is how Pygmalion reacted to having a child. He never acknowledges the kid in the story, it’s through Galatea that we know they even have a kid together. I loved the little glimpses of the daughter that we got to see. She seemed like a really smart girl, which was honestly probably a bad thing in those times. But, to see the relationship that she had with Galatea and to see how far Galatea was willing to go for her was adorable. It’s the little things that Miller wrote that let me understand who the characters are as people One of those things is Pygmalion’s reaction to Galatea’s stretch marks. Naturally, after having a kid, Galatea’s body is not going to be the same. But Pygmalion acts like its the biggest insult to him as a sculptor to have one of his works have stretch marks. He genuinely considered Galatea to only be a statue, despite being brought to life. You can tell through that interaction that he never saw Galatea as someone to love but as an object to let everyone know just how talented he was to have designed and sculpted her and then to have a goddess bless him. Leading into that, Pygmalion in general was so creepy. When he talks to Galatea the one thing he ever really mentions is how his works are coming along. He talks of how he’s making another sculpture and you can tell in his words that he’s wistful to have this one brought to life as well. Just to hear him talk about sculpting girls, some as young as 10, is so creepy. You would think with having a wife, you wouldn’t feel the need to go lusting after statues that you’re creating. But, it’s obvious with Pygmalion’s character that he’s only going to be happy with a woman that is designed and does exactly as he wants.
With the way her whole escape attempt was leading up, it seemed like she was going to pull another runaway attempt with her daughter. And though Galatea was known for her looks, it was amazing to see how clever her plan was to trick her nurse into letting her outside. I loved seeing that part of her instead of the stupid yet beautiful woman that everyone else saw her as. I was not expecting for Galatea to transform back into a statue. I honestly admire Miller for having that ending to the story. And I was honestly cheering Galatea on for her managing to trick Pygmalion into the ocean with her and then just taking him down with her. She was honestly smarter than everyone gave her credit for and it was great to see her taking him down.
Honestly, this is a short story that I think everyone would love reading. It’s five stars from me. It’s such a short story and it doesn’t take long to read, it’s like 30 pages max. Plus it’s a super interesting story and a great take on the classical myth that I think anyone interested in reading a short myth would enjoy. Check out Madeline Miller’s website here.
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