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Greek and Roman Mythology
There once was a young
sculptor from
Crete named
Pygmalion who hated women. He decided never to marry and that he was happy enough sculpting. Oddly enough, the statue he worked hardest on was an image of a woman. It was unbelieveably real, so much so it seemed like a real woman frozen for a moment in time. For even odder reasons, Pygmalion fell in love with his statue. He kissed it, brought it gifts, everything (this is one sad little man). Eventually he realized how absurd this was (he had gotten to the point of sleeping with his statue....well, lets not get into that) and stopped, becoming extremely depressed.
Now Venus had been watching him, and had taken an interest in the poor sap's love problem. Every year Crete had a big religious ceremony for her, as Venus had first emerged from the sea off the shores of Crete. At this ceremony Pygmalion prayed that he could have a woman like his statue. Venus decided to grant his wish. When he returned home and kissed his statue, he felt her stone body soften to flesh. To his surprise, Venus had transformed his statue into a real woman! She took the name Galatea and the two were married with Venus's blessings.