Skip to content
Galatea, a MythSource painting
Greek

Galatea

The Milk-White One · The Fair Nereid · The Sea-Nymph

01Identity

Galatea in Greek tradition

As a fair Nereid and sea nymph, Galatea belongs to the marine world of waves, dolphins and milk-white imagery, and is associated with beauty and desire. In the tale of Galatea, Acis and Polyphemus, she loved Acis, provoking Polyphemus to hurl a boulder at him. After Acis was crushed, his scarlet blood flowed from beneath the rock before he became the grey river Acis.

Top questions

The quick answers

  • Who is Galatea?

    Galatea is a Greek being associated with the sea, the Nereids, marine nature, beauty and desire.
    Source

    Source

    • Classical Mythology a to Z
    • Bullfinch Mythology - The Age of Fable
    • Dictionary of Mythology

  • What is Galatea associated with?

    the sea, the Nereids, marine nature, beauty and desire
    Source

    Source

    • Classical Mythology a to Z
    • Bullfinch Mythology - The Age of Fable

  • Is Galatea in Acis a Galatea?

    Yes. It is linked here to Galatea, Acis, and Polyphemus.

  • What family links are recorded for Galatea?

    Father: Nereus, Mother: Doris, 2 children.

  • What happens in Galatea, the Living Statue?

    Pygmalion carves an ivory woman and treats the figure as his beloved companion, after rejecting marriage or longing for Aphrodite.
    Source

    Source

    • Ovid, Metamorphoses
    • The Greek Myths
    • Shakespeare's Ovid, being Arthur Golding's translation of the Metamorphoses

  • What happens in Galatea, Acis, and Polyphemus?

    Polyphemus hurled a great boulder at Acis after Acis loved Galatea, and the stone crushed him.
    Source

    Source

    • Ovid, Metamorphoses
    • Greek Myths & Tales
    • Shakespeare's Ovid, being Arthur Golding's translation of the Metamorphoses
02Family

Galatea’s family, at a glance

Parents above, children below, and the figure’s consorts named in between, the same family data as the fact box, laid out as a chart instead of a field list.

NereusDoris
Galatea
IllyriusKeltos
03The names

The names Galatea answers to

Galateia

Greek form of the name

SourceClassical Mythology a to Z

Galatea

Latinized form of Galateia

SourceDictionary of Mythology

Galathea

Variant spelling of the name

SourceDictionary of Mythology

04The myths

The myths of Galatea

2 myths, each traced to its primary text and corpus sources, with 6 reviewed modern reworks linked where the evidence supports it.

Galatea, the Living Statue

Pygmalion, son of Belus, laid an ivory image in his bed and prayed to Aphrodite for pity. He had fallen in love with the goddess, but she would not lie with him, so he made the image in her likeness. Another account gives a different reason for his solitude. After seeing women lead sinful lives, Pygmalion rejected marriage and remained single. He carved a figure with such beauty and grace that it seemed almost alive.

He dressed the image in fine garments and adorned it with rings, a chain, pearls, and other ornaments. He treated it as his bedfellow and placed its head on a soft pillow. During the festival of Aphrodite held throughout Cyprus, white bulls with gilded horns were sacrificed, and incense rose from the altar. After completing the rites, Pygmalion stood before Aphrodite and prayed that the goddess would grant him a wife like the ivory figure. He did not dare to ask directly for the statue itself.

Aphrodite heard the prayer. She entered the ivory image and brought it to life. The living woman was later called Galatea. Pygmalion married her, and she bore him Paphus and Metharme. Paphus succeeded Pygmalion and became the father of Cinyras. Cinyras founded the Cyprian city of Paphos and built a temple there for Aphrodite. The first account also connects Pygmalion with Paphos, where Aphrodite was worshipped and where her white image was kept.

Galatea, the Living Statue, a MythSource painting of the scene

In the modern world

Galatea

Game

Emily Short's interactive fiction gives the sculpted woman Galatea, who willed herself to life, a full conversational presence in a modern art gallery, transforming Pygmalion's prayer-granted statue into an 'animate' the player can talk with.

Galathea

Film

Suppe's comic operetta has Pygmalion's statue Galatea brought to life at his prayer during Venus's festival, then comedically defy him by falling for his servant instead, before Venus turns her back to stone.

Krásná Galathea

Film

Suppe's comic operetta has Pygmalion's statue Galatea brought to life at his prayer during Venus's festival, then comedically defy him by falling for his servant instead, before Venus turns her back to stone.

3 sources· checked 2026-08-19

  1. 1The Greek MythsT1
  2. 2Ovid, MetamorphosesT1

    Quote

    “Aphrodite answered Pygmalion's prayer by making the ivory image living, and he married the woman it became.”

    Ovid, Metamorphoses

  3. 3Shakespeare's Ovid, being Arthur Golding's translation of the MetamorphosesT1

Galatea, Acis, and Polyphemus

Galatea told the sea nymphs of her grief. Many mortal men had sought her, but she had rejected them. She could not escape the love of Polyphemus, the Cyclops. She loved Acis instead, a mortal whom Polyphemus despised. Galatea said that she and her sisters guarded her, yet she could not avoid the Cyclops's pursuit.

Polyphemus complained that Galatea rejected him while loving Acis. He asked why she preferred the smaller mortal to him. His anger grew, and he threatened Acis with savage violence. He said that he would tear the youth's limbs apart and scatter them across the fields and through the waters if he found him visiting Galatea. He compared the fire within his breast to Mount Aetna's burning force. After speaking, he left in fury and moved through his woods and familiar pastures.

Polyphemus then hurled a great boulder at Acis. The stone struck him and crushed him beneath it. Acis's scarlet blood flowed from the rock. The red colour gradually faded and took on the appearance of a stream swollen by rain. The boulder split open. Reeds grew from its hollow, and bubbling water trickled from the opening. Acis rose from the stone with a wreath of reeds around his horned head. His body was larger than before and entirely grey. He was still recognisable as Acis, but he had changed into water. From then on, he remained in the form of the Sicilian river Acis.

Galatea, Acis, and Polyphemus, a MythSource painting of the scene

In the modern world

Acis a Galatea

Film

Czech Television's filmed 2017 staged recording at Valtice retells the Ovid-derived myth in which the jealous cyclops Polyphemus kills Galatea's lover Acis.

Acis and Galatea

Film

In Handel's 1718 masque, the giant Polyphemus murders the shepherd Acis in a jealous rage over Galatea, who then transforms her lover's body into a fountain.

Handel: Aci, Galatea E Polifemo

Film

Polifemo's jealous rage over Galatea has lethal consequences for Aci, placing the cyclops's violence against Galatea's lover at the centre of this 1708 serenata.

3 sources· checked 2026-08-19

  1. 1Greek Myths & TalesT1
  2. 2Ovid, MetamorphosesT1

    Quote

    “Polyphemus, enraged by Galatea's love for Acis, crushes the youth beneath a rock, after which Acis is changed into the Sicilian river that bears his name.”

    Ovid, Metamorphoses

  3. 3Shakespeare's Ovid, being Arthur Golding's translation of the MetamorphosesT1

Also appears in

The myths across MythSource where Galatea features, each on that figure’s page.

The film

The Underdrawing video on Galatea embeds here once it publishes.