The stories allude not only to a transformation but to the creation of an essentially new being. These in fact refer back to the idea of original creation. Was the lifeless man made from mud by Prometheus truly imbused with the breath of life by the goddess Athena? Did the Judeo-Chistian God creat man from dust? And did he breathe life into man? Did a lifeless statue of white marble soften to living flesh by the goddess Venus? Could the Duchess Eliza be created from a lowly guttersnipe? Can such impossibilities of life really occur? Or, is Darwin's view of evolution over eons of time more plausible?