Talk:Galatea (mythology)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Galatea, the statue carved by Pygmalion, was brought to life so Pygmalion and GAlatea could be married
Contents |
[edit] Rewritten
I have so thoroughly rewritten the article, now fully sourced and keeping more closely to the details in the sources, that I'll set the former version here, in case anyone feels that some former material has been overlooked. --Wetman 02:46, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
-
- In Greek mythology, Galatea ("she who is milk-white") was the name of a Sicilian Nereid (i.e.: a sea-nymph) loved by the Cyclops Polyphemus. She, however, loved a Sicilian youth named Acis, whom Polyphemus killed with a boulder in a jealous rage. Distraught, Galatea turned his blood into the river Acis in Sicily. Galatea was essentially one of the fifty Sirens.
-
- In the story from Roman mythology, she is often named as the statue of Pygmalion that was brought to life by Venus. Pygmalion was the king of an island called Cyprus. He was not only a wise ruler, but a gifted sculptor. He once sculpted a perfect maiden. He eventually fell in love with the statue. Praying to Venus that the ivory of the statue would turn to flesh, Pygmalion's wish was granted. They fell in love and were happily married. The story comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses; however, the statue is never actually named in Ovid's poem, and the name Galatea was given at some unknown later date.
-
- Cited by John Gower in book II of his 'Confessio Amantis', which concerns the subject of Envy.
[edit] "the goddess of calm seas'
This addition is not a possible reading of Galatea. A confusion with Halcyon perhaps. I have had to restore the references and sources in Classical literature that were recently deleted. --Wetman 20:36, 24 August 2006 (UTC)
- There are two possible etymologies for Galateia, from galaktos (milk), or from galana teia or galênê theia (goddess of the calm). Compare Psamatheia (the sand goddess).
I removed the Ovid reference as the source of the story. Greek writers such as Athenaeus attribute the original to Philoxenus of Cythera, a poet in the court of the Sicilian tyrant Dionysius. Theranos 20:56, 24 August 2006 (UTC)
- Theoi.com is generally an excellent repository, and it does assert that "Her name means either "Goddess of Calm Seas" or "Milky White". But the site gives no epithet "of calm seas" among its extensive quotes, and the phrase certainly can't be construed out of Galatea. Let us agree to omit this phrase for now, until we can find a usage to support it. But meanwhile, perhaps you'd care to expand the article to include the pre-Ovidian references that had escaped it! --Wetman 21:49, 24 August 2006 (UTC)
- I've added the extra references ... not sure if the format is the best though. Please let me know! Galateia is also connected with [| Galene in the Smith Classics Dictionary]. The suffix -teia seems to mean goddess, as in other Nereid names: Amatheia, Psamathe, Leukotheia, Pasitheia, etc. WHere gala- comes from is debatable, but Hesiod has both a Galene (Calm-Sea) and a Galateia named as Nereids, just like he has a Hippo and Hippothoe (Horse-Swift), and a complimentary Nesiae and Neso (of Islands). So Galateia as Calm-Goddess does seem likely. I assume the reasoning for Galateia as Milky-White comes from the adjectival form of galaktos, galakteia?
[edit] Galatea the statue
Re the first line of the Galatea statue entry:
- "Bibliotheke, the Hellenistic compendium of myth long attributed to Apollodorus, relates[3] the myth of the earlier milky-white Galatea"
Could this be reworded? Apollodorus never mentions the story of the statue, only this genealogy -
- "This Cinyras in Cyprus, whither he had come with some people, founded Paphos; and having there married Metharme, daughter of Pygmalion, king of Cyprus, he begat Oxyporus and Adonis." Apollodorus 3.14
Ovid speaks of the statue, but he is simply retelling an older Greek or Cypriot tale. Also perhaps it worth emphasizing that the sculpted woman is never named by Galatea by any classical writer - the name being coined by a post-classical writer. Theranos 07:47, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Dropp[ed references
References to Ovid's Metamorphoses have been deleted twice. This is the former text (footnotes preserved in the html: "In Ovid's Metamorphoses,[1] Galatea ("she who is milk-white"[2]) was the name of a Sicilian Nereid—a sea-nymph—yearned for by the Cyclops Polyphemus." I am removing this from my Watchlist: you're on your own. --Wetman 13:39, 28 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Vandals
This page was vandalized so I restored a previous version.
