Galatea: The instant Sunday Times bestseller

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Nor is Galatea’s fate the only enigmatic feature of the story, the telling of which raises all sorts of questions.

When Galatea wonders why he didn’t just marry a girl from the town, he responds: “Those sluts […] I would not have them. As Miller explains in the story’s afterword, it’s a response, “almost solely”, to Ovid’s version of the Pygmalion myth in the Metamorphoses. After all, it was Pygmalion's disdain for women and his belief that all of them were whores unworthy of his time that drove him to create his own "perfect" woman; first as a statue while later bringing her to life with the help of Aphrodite. She has also studied at the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought, and in the Dramaturgy department at Yale School of Drama, where she focused on the adaptation of classical texts to modern forms. The Pygmalion Effect, a psychological phenomenon that links high expectations to increased productivity is also named after the Greek myth.

If you’re looking for a beautifully-written retelling of a compelling Greek myth, I’d wholeheartedly recommend Galatea. The sentiment seems to be what Miller’s publishers are banking on: “Galatea’s” marketing materials include that the short story is “gifty. Miller explores the original Pygmalion myth from the point of view of Galatea with a relatability that resonates throughout the ages. It’s a stunning piece of work that explores themes of fate and family, love and class, in lovely and propulsive prose that easily matches the mythic proportions of its source material. I was very excited about this new book, which is labeled as a short story, but packaged as a freestanding little hardback.

Retellings of Greek mythology are having quite their day in the sun lately, largely in part to author’s such as Madeline Miller crafting such engaging stories that play with the original myths while also making them feel very modern. Miller explores this idea further by focusing on the contradiction between this hatred for women and desire for their bodies. Locked away and under constant supervision, Galatea is determined to break free and rescue her daughter.And without giving away the plot conclusion, it’s a forceful indictment of the terribleness of treating women like objects. This is a man who desires women but hates them, finding that the only way he can live out his fantasies of purity and control are by carving a woman from stone – which, too, backfires in this story. When Aphrodite's festival came, he gave his offerings and prayed for a woman who was like the statue he created.