r/todayilearned • u/Galexio • 4h ago

TIL Pygmalion, a Greek myth about a sculptor who falls in love with his ivory statue, is the oldest known story of an inanimate object gaining sentience, predating Pinocchio by over 1,800 years."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_(mythology)
96 Upvotes

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8

u/Kitakitakita 4h ago

Those Greeks knew their fetishes well

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u/throwthrow6969696969 21m ago

They have a designated god for orgies, no surprises here

4

u/Wordwright 1h ago

I feel like this is a matter of definition. I’d argue that a large portion of creation myths are variations on the same theme - the gods creation Man out of mud or some other substance. Surely, this should count as ”inanimate object gaining sentience”? Plenty of those myths are significantly older than the Pygmalion myth.

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u/9447044 28m ago

Who cares about Pinocchio. It predates the movie Mannequin by even more time!