Galatea (mythology)

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

For other uses, see Galatea (Greek myth).

Galatea is also the name of a sea-nymph, one of the fifty Nereids (daughters of Nereus) mentioned by Hesiod and Homer. 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. She is also mentioned in Virgil's Eclogues and Aeneid.

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