Galatea (Greek myth)

In Greek mythology, Galatea (/ˌɡæləˈtiːə/; 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]

^ 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.
^ Hesiod, Theogony 250; Homer, Iliad 18.45; Theocritus 6.6, 11.8; Virgil, Eclogue 9.39; Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.738, 789.
^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.243 ff.
^ Antoninus Liberalis, 17 with reference to Nicander