Galatea (Greek myth)

In Greek mythology, Galatea (/ˌɡæləˈtə/; Ancient Greek: Γαλάτεια; "she who is milk-white")[1] was the name of the following figures:

  • Galatea, a Nereid who loved the shepherd Acis, and was loved by the cyclops Polyphemus.[2]
  • Galatea, the statue of a woman created by Pygmalion and brought to life by Aphrodite.[3]
  • Galatea, daughter of Eurytius, son of Sparton. Her husband Lamprus wished to have a son and told her to expose the child if it turned out to be a girl. So when Galatea gave birth to a girl she asked the gods to change her sex, and Leto turned her into a boy (Leucippus)[4]

Notes

  1. ^ Galene in the Smith Classics Dictionary Archived 2007-10-13 at the Wayback Machine. The suffix -teia or -theia means "goddess", as in other Nereid names: Amatheia, Psamathe, Leukotheia, Pasitheia, etc. Hesiod has both a Galene ("Calm-Sea") and a Galateia named as Nereids. Galateia as "sea-calm Goddess" seem a likely inference; the reasoning for Galateia as Milky-White comes from the adjectival form of galaktos, galakteia.
  2. ^ Hesiod, Theogony 250; Homer, Iliad 18.45; Theocritus 6.6, 11.8; Virgil, Eclogue 9.39; Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.738, 789.
  3. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.243 ff.
  4. ^ Antoninus Liberalis, 17 with reference to Nicander

References