Propoetides

The Propoetides are in Greek mythology the daughters of Propoetus from the city of Amathus on the island of Cyprus. In Roman literature they are treated by Ovid in his Metamorphoses (book 10.238 ff.):

:"Nevertheless, the immoral Propoetides dared to deny that Venus was the goddess. For this, because of her divine anger, they are said to have been the first to prostitute their bodies and their reputations in public, and, losing all sense of shame, they lost the power to blush, as the blood hardened in their cheeks, and only a small change turned them into hard flints." [ [http://www.mythology.us/ovid_metamorphoses_book_10.htm Ovid's Metamorphoses, book 10, English Translation] ]

The story of the Venus, and vengeance on the Propoetides for failing to worship her properly is a common theme in a number of stories and poems written about the goddess. [ [http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/AphroditeWrath.html Stories of the Wrath of Aphrodite] ]

According to Ovid, after seeing the Propoetides prostituting themselves, Pygmalion determines that he is 'not interested in women'. This drives him to create a woman of his own in statue form, who he then falls in love with.

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