Galatea (mythology)

Galatea (/ˌɡæləˈtiːə/; Greek: Γαλάτεια; "she who is milk-white")^[1] is the post-antiquity name popularly applied to the statue carved of ivory alabaster by Pygmalion of Cyprus, which then came to life in Greek mythology.

Galatea is also the name of a sea-nymph, one of the fifty Nereids (daughters of Nereus) mentioned by Hesiod and Homer.^[2] In Theocritus Idylls VI and XI she is the object of desire of the one-eyed giant Polyphemus and is linked with Polyphemus again in the myth of Acis and Galatea in Ovid's Metamorphoses.^[3] She is also mentioned in Virgil's Eclogues and Aeneid.^[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" seems 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.
^ Ovid, Met. 13.738, 13.789.
^ Virgil, Ec. 1.30, 1.31, 3.64, 3.72, 7.37, 9.39, Aen. 9.103.

[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" seems 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.

[3] Ovid, Met. 13.738, 13.789.

[4] Virgil, Ec. 1.30, 1.31, 3.64, 3.72, 7.37, 9.39, Aen. 9.103.

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