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Comparing Pygmalion 'And Myrrah' By Ted Hughes

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In Tales from Ovid, Ted Hughes defines the role of women as only for their beauty and for their bodies. Hughes uses different stories to show the role of women in Tales from Ovid including “Myrrah”. For example, in “Myrrah” the king was drunk and heard that Myrrah was beautiful and he wanted to hook up with her because of her beauty and body. Ovid uses imagery to show how women are only valued for beauty in the myths “Myrrah”, “Venus and Adonis”, and “Pygmalion”. Firstly, in “Pygmalion”, Pygmalion dreamed of a perfect woman, and by perfect they only described the way she looked and how “perfect” her body was. Pygmalion dreamed of “The perfect body of a perfect woman” (pg.135) and “Lovelier than any living woman” (pg.135). When Pygmalion sculpted his “perfect” woman, I understand he wants her to be perfect and beautiful, but he never said anything about her besides her beauty. He only describes the looks and perfect body of his wife. The story kind of hints that Pygmalion is a womanizer because the story repeatedly says how he “adored women” (pg.134) and how he “dreamed” (pg.135) of women. Pygmalion had no wife and he wanted to have a wife so he sculpted his “perfect” wife in his dream. He then prayed to Venus to give him a wife and Venus …show more content…

Ovid says, “listening to the nurse’s strange news about an incredibly beautiful girl madly in love with him.” (pg.113) This story is kind of confusing because Myrrah was in love with her father in the first place. But, her father was drunk he slept with his daughter. After the first night, he did it more, when he was drunk because he loved the pleasure. The king didn’t know it was his daughter and when he found out he was horrified and tried to kill his daughter. When the king slept with his daughter, Ovid states, “mistakes her whimpering for lust and conscience.”

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