DiotimosReading Desk

Mysteries religious figures and sacred history

Pygmalion and character

Pygmalion; Galatea; character; Divine Ideal

Pygmalion and Galatea furnish the image of an ideal brought to life.

From the book

Ancient Mystic Oriental Masonry

R. Swinburne Clymer · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Browse this book’s lexicon →

Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordPygmalion and Galatea furnish the image of an ideal brought to life.
  • In Ancient Mystic Oriental MasonryThe Perfect Master chips away stone to reveal the divine ideal and gives it life.
  • In this editionThe names are retained as printed.
  • A place to readM.29: … “reveal in all its grandeur and beauty the Divine Ideal, and endow it with the breath” …

Meaning

Pygmalion and Galatea furnish the image of an ideal brought to life. Character is the human work the image is made to explain.

Use in the book

The Perfect Master chips away stone to reveal the divine ideal and gives it life. The book declares that the fable can in this sense be more real than history: its truth lies in the pattern of transformation it expresses. The later portraits of purity and fidelity give the beautiful ideal a practical ethical content.

Places to read

  1. Mystic Masonry · Block 29… “reveal in all its grandeur and beauty the Divine Ideal, and endow it with the breath of life. Such is the building of character. The fable of Pygmalion and Galatea, is,” …
  2. Masonic Symbolism · Block 58“263. "In the Old Lectures it is said, 'He that is truly square, well polished, and uprightly fixed, is qualified to be a member of our most honorable society. He that” …
  3. Masonic Symbolism · Block 84“288. "The Rite of Illumination is a very Ancient ceremony, and constitutes an important feature in all the mysteries of the early ages. In the Egyptian, Cabirian, Sidonian, Eleusinian, Scandinavian and” …

In this edition

The names are retained as printed. The entry explains the allusion’s work here rather than supplying a complete retelling of the classical story.

Reading the argument

The passage offers one of the clearest statements of the book’s preference for symbolic truth over isolated factual detail. That preference explains its reading method, but it should not be used to excuse every historical assertion from ordinary scrutiny.

Pygmalion

“Pygmalion” — 1 occurrence in 1 text block: M.29.

Galatea

“Galatea” — 1 occurrence in 1 text block: M.29.

character

“character” — 15 occurrences in 14 text blocks: I.15; M.25, 29, 51; F.45–46, 162; S.8, 28, 34, 36, 38, 121, 152.

Divine Ideal

“Divine Ideal” — 1 occurrence in 1 text block: M.29.