Galatea (mythology)
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 post-antiquity name given to the statue of a woman created by Pygmalion and brought to life by Aphrodite.[3]
- Galatea, daughter of Eurytius, son of Sparton. She married a man of good family but poor, Lamprus. When she became pregnant, Lamprus wished to have a son and told her to expose the child if it turned out to be a girl. Galatea gave birth to a girl while Lamprus was away, so she—with the advice of seers and her own dreams—told Lamprus that the baby was male, and named her Leucippus. As Leucippus grew older, her true sex became harder and harder to conceal, so Galatea went to the sanctuary of Leto and prayed to the goddess to change her daughter into a man. Leto took pity on mother and daughter and made Leucippus an actual man.[4]
Notes
- ^ Galene in the Smith Classics Dictionary. 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
References
- Antoninus Liberalis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Hesiod, Theogony from The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
- Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. ISBN 978-0674995796. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Homer, Homeri Opera in five volumes. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1920. ISBN 978-0198145318. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More (1859–1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses. Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.