Galatea (mythology)

For the Sicilian nereid in love with Acis, see Acis and Galatea

For the wife of Lamprus, who prayed to Leto that her daughter be turned into a son, see Leucippus

Galatea (Greek: Γαλάτεια; "she who is milk-white"). 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. is a name popularly applied to the statue carved of ivory by Pygmalion of Cyprus in Greek mythology. An allusion to Galatea in modern English has become a metaphor for a statue that has come to life. Galatea is also the name of Polyphemus's object of desire in Theocritus's Idylls VI and XI and is linked with Polyphemus again in the myth of Acis and Galatea in Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Name "Galatea"

Though the name "Galatea" has become so firmly associated with Pygmalion's statue as to seem antique, its use in connection with Pygmalion, originated with a post-classical writer. No extant ancient text mentions the statue's name.Helen H. Law, "The name Galatea in the Pygmalion myth" The Classical Journal, 27 (1932), pp 337-42; Meyer Reinhold, "The Naming of Pygmalion's Animated Statue" The Classical Journal...
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