Galatea (Greek myth)

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

  • Galatea, a Nereid who loved the shepherd Acis.[2]
  • Galatea, the statue of a woman created by Pygmalion.[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]

References
  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; Homer, Iliad.
  3. Metamorphoses x.243ff.
  4. Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses, 17, with reference to Nicander
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