Pygmalion is the king of Cyprus who fell in love with a statue of his own making, kissed the ivory statue and thought the kisses were returned. He talked to it with words of love and brought to it the kind of gifts that are thought to please girls, such as shells and pebbles, little birds and flowers of all colors. Besides all this he also draped it with robes, put rings upon its fingers and a necklace around her neck. And by night Pygmalion put the statue on a bed, called it the consort of his bed and rested its head upon soft pillows.

So when the time came for the festival of Aphrodite to be celebrated, Pygmalion visited it and prayed to the goddess to have as wife one like his ivory maid. Aphrodite understood he did not mean one like his ivory maid but the ivory maid itself. So when Pygmalion returned home and kissed his ivory statue he discovered it was warm as he was kissing not ivory but flesh.

Pygmalion married she who had been a statue and Aphrodite, who had given life to it came to the wedding. Pygmalion was given a long life. According to some their daughter Paphos was mother of King Cinyras of Cyprus and sometimes it is said that Cinyras married Metharme and that one of their children was Adonis. Cinyras promised to send fifty ships against Troy but sent only one.