Shunning the world of fickle women, Pygmalion thought it best to live singly. But being a sculptor he fashioned a dream woman, one very elegant, modest, and realistic. Obsessed with his own marble creation, he brought it gifts and even lay with it in bed. Although he knew it wasn't real, he was completely in love with his statue and longed for it to respond to him. At a festival dedicated to Venus, Pygmalion prayed to the goddess to give the statue life. He went home and embraced it, and as he did so a pulse began to beat and the marble turned to warm flesh in his arms. In this way Pygmalion achieved possession of his ideal woman.
The nymph Pomona was single-mindedly devoted to the cultivation of fruit trees, and although she was strikingly beautiful, she disdained the suitors who flocked to her gardens and orchards. But one suitor was more determined than the rest. Vertumnus would resort to any disguise just to be near her — fisherman, farmer, shepherd. One day he visited her in the guise of an old woman and praised her fruit trees, kissing her passionately by way of greeting. The old woman then began to talk of her single state, of what a fine lad Vertumnus was, and of the dangers of rejecting men. She told Pomona a story of a young man who killed himself when rejected in love and of how the gods turned the woman who spurned him into a statue. But the words of the old woman did nothing to change Pomona. Finally in desperation Vertumnus threw off his disguise and stood naked before Pomona, who fell in love with his handsome form. They embraced and spent the rest of their lives tending fruit trees.
In Sestus there lived the lovely Hero in a tower by the sea, where she ministered to Venus and Cupid. Across the Hellespont lived Leander, a striking young man. They met at a festival of Adonis and fell in love. Leander agreed to swim the Hellespont for an assignation with Hero, while Hero would light a lamp to guide him. Thus, during the summer the two enjoyed many secret nights of love. But winter came with fierce weather and Hero could not resist putting the lamp forth to guide Leander to her bed. He drowned in the attempt to swim across from Abydos to Sestus. When Hero looked down at the wave-battered rocks in the morning and saw his mangled body she plunged from a crag onto the rocks, uniting herself with Leander in death.
