NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Galatea (mythology)

Galatea ("she who is milk-white")^[1] was the name of three figures in Greek mythology, the best-known being the wife of Pygmalion. The second Galatea, the Sicilian nereid in love with Acis, is discussed at Acis and Galatea (mythology). The third character is the wife of Lamprus who prayed to Leto that her daughter be turned into a son (see Leucippus). Pygmalion and Galatea by Jean-Leon Gerome (1824-1904). ... Pygmalion and Galatea by Jean-Leon Gerome (1824-1904). ... Pollice Verso by Jean-LÃ©on GÃ©rÃ´me, 1872, is the immediate source of the thumbs down gesture in popular culture. ... The bust of Zeus found at Otricoli (Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican) Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the Ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. ... Ã‰tienne Maurice Falconet: Pygmalion & Galatee (1763) Pygmalion is a legendary figure found in Ovids Metamorphoses. ... In Greek mythology, the Nereids (NEER-ee-eds) are sea nymphs, the fifty daughters of Nereus and Doris. ... For other meanings, see ACIS (disambiguation) In Ovids Metamorphoses (xiii. ... Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus by Rubens In Greek mythology, Leucippus, son of Gorgophone and Perieres, was the father of Phoebe and Hilaeira, and also of Arsinoe mother (in some versions of the myth) of Asclepius, by his wife Philodice, daughter of Inachus. ... For other uses, see Leto (disambiguation). ... In Greek mythology, Leucippus, son of Gorgophone and Perieres, was the father of Phoebe and Hilaeira Castor and Polydeuces abducted and married Phoebe and Hilaeira, the daughters of Leucippus. ...

The name "Galatea" was given to the wife of Pygmalion, king of Cyprus by a post-classical writer. No extant ancient text mentions her name.^[2] The story of Pygmalion appeared earliest in the Hellenistic work the history and antiquities of Cyprus of Philostephanus.^[3] It is retold in Ovid's Metamorphoses,^[4] where the king Pygmalion is made into a sculptor who fell in love with an ivory statue he had crafted with his own hands; in answer to his prayers, the goddess Aphrodite brought it to life and united the couple in marriage. This novella remained the classical telling until the end of the seventeenth century. The trope of the animated statue gained a vogue during the eighteenth century,^[5] but the sculpture of the subject shown by Falconet at the Salon of 1763, still carried the title Pygmalion aux pieds de sa statue qui s'anime.^[6] in fact, as Meyer Reinhold pointed out, the name Galatea, which has stuck so firmly to the statue as to seem antique, was first given wide circulation in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's scène lyrique of 1762, Pygmalion. The name "Galatea" had become a commonplace of pastoral fictions; one of Honoré d'Urfé's characters in L'Astrée was a Galatea, though not this sculptural creation. Philostephanus of Cyrene (Philostephanus Cyrenaeus[1]) was a Hellenistic writer from Cyrene in north Africa, who was a pupil of the poet Callimachus in Alexandria and doubtless worked there, during the third century BCE. His history of Cyprus, De Cypro, written during the reign of Ptolemy Philopator (222-206 BCE... For other uses, see Ovid (disambiguation) Publius Ovidius Naso (March 20, 43 BC â€“ 17 AD) was a Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid who wrote on topics of love, abandoned women and mythological transformations. ... // Cover of George Sandyss 1632 edition of Ovids Metamorphosis Englished The Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid is a poem in fifteen books that describes the creation and history of the world in terms according to Greek and Roman points of view. ... The Birth of Venus, (detail) by Sandro Botticelli, 1485 For other uses, see Aphrodite (disambiguation). ... In literature, a trope is a familiar and repeated symbol, meme, theme, motif, style, character or thing that permeates a particular type of literature. ... Falconets awesome statue of Peter I has become one of the symbols of St Petersburg Ã‰tienne Maurice Falconet (1716 - 1791), is counted among the first rank of French Rococo sculptors, patronized by Mme de Pompadour. ... HonorÃ© Daumier satirized the bourgeoises scandalized by the Salons Venuses, 1864 The Paris Salon (French: Salon de Paris) is the official art exhibition of the AcadÃ©mie des beaux-arts in Paris, France. ... Jean-Jacques Rousseau, (June 28, 1712 â€“ July 2, 1778) was a Genevan philosopher of the Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism. ... For other uses, see Pastoral (disambiguation). ... HonorÃ© dUrfÃ©, marquis de Valromey, comte de ChÃ¢teauneuf (February 11, 1568 - June 1, 1625), French novelist and miscellaneous writer, was born at Marseille, and was educated at the CollÃ¨ge de Tournon. ... HonorÃ© dUrfÃ©, marquis de Valromey, comte de ChÃ¢teauneuf (February 11, 1568 - June 1, 1625) was a French novelist and miscellaneous writer. ...

The daemon of Pygmalion's goddess, animating her cult image, bore him a son Paphus—the eponym of the city of Paphos—and Metharme. Of "this ecstatic relationship," Meyer Reinhold has remarked, "there may be lurking a survival of the ancient cult of the Great Goddess and her consort."^[7] This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... District Paphos Government - Mayor Savvas Vergas Population (2001) - City 47,300 Time zone EET (UTC+2) Website: http://www. ... An eponym is the name of a person, whether real or fictitious, who has (or is thought to have) given rise to the name of a particular place, tribe, discovery, or other item. ... District Paphos Government - Mayor Savvas Vergas Population (2001) - City 47,300 Time zone EET (UTC+2) Website: http://www. ... In Greek mythology, Queen Metharme of Cyprus was the daughter of Pygmalion, wife of Cinyras and mother of Adonis and Myrrha. ... A Mother Goddess is a goddess portrayed as the Earth Mother who serves as a general fertility deity, the bountiful embodiment of the earth. ...

Cinyras, perhaps the son of Paphus, (^[8]), or perhaps the successful suitor of Metharme, founded the city of Paphos on Cyprus, under the patronage of Aphrodite, and built the great temple to the goddess there. In Greek mythology, King Cinyras of Cyprus was a son of Apollo and husband of Metharme. ...

Bibliotheke, the Hellenistic compendium of myth long attributed to Apollodorus, mentions a daughter of Pygmalion named Metharme.^[9] She was the wife of Cinyras, and the mother of Adonis, beloved of Aphrodite. Although Myrrha, daughter of Cinyras, is more commonly named as the mother of Adonis. The Bibliotheke was renowned as the chief work of Greek historian and scholar. ... In Greek mythology Adonis (Greek: , also: Î†Î´Ï‰Î½Î¹Ï‚) is an archetypal life-death-rebirth deity of Semitic origin, and a central cult figure in various mystery religions. ... In Greek mythology, Myrrha was the daughter of Theias, the King of Assyria, and mother of Adonis by him. ...

It was commonly rumored in Roman times that Praxiteles' Aphrodite of Knidos, the cult image in her temple at Knidos was so beautiful that at least one admirer arranged to be shut in with it overnight.^[10] Praxiteles of Athens, the son of Cephisodotus, was the greatest of the Attic sculptors of the 4th century BC, who has left an imperishable mark on the history of art. ... -1... Knidos or Cnidus (modern-day Tekir in Turkey) is an ancient Greek city in Asia Minor, once part of the country of Caria. ...

Interpretation

The myth incontrovertibly indicates that a cult image of Aphrodite was instrumental in some way in the founding myth of Paphos. It also seems axiomatic, apart from miraculous intervention, that the living representative of a cult image could be none but the chief priestess. Robert Graves gives a socio-political interpretation of the story, as a mythologized overthrow of a matrilineal cult. In his view Pygmalion, the consort of the goddess's priestess at Paphos, kept the cult image of Aphrodite as a means of retaining power during his term, after which, Graves speculates, he refused to give up the goddess's image "and that he prolonged this by marriage with another of Aphrodite's priestesses—technically his daughter, since she was heiress to the throne—who is called Metharme ("change"), to mark the innovation."^[11] A founding myth is a story or myth surrounding the foundation of a nation-state. ... District Paphos Government - Mayor Savvas Vergas Population (2001) - City 47,300 Time zone EET (UTC+2) Website: http://www. ... Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 â€“ 7 December 1985) was an English poet, scholar, and novelist. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Pygmalion is the Greek version of the Phoenician royal name Pumayyaton: see Pygmalion of Tyre. Phoenicia (or Phenicia ,[1] from Biblical Phenice [1]) was an ancient civilization centered in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coast of modern day Lebanon and Syria. ... Pygmalion (also known as Pumayyaton) was king of Tyre from 820 to 774 BC and a son of King Mattan I (829-821 BC). ...

Notes and references

Galatea the Nereid in classical literature and art

^ [| 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.
^ Helen H. Law, "The name Galatea in the Pygmalion myth" The Classical Journal, 27 (1932), pp 337-42; Meyer Reinhold, "The Naming of Pygmalion's Animated Statue" The Classical Journal 66.4 (1971), pp. 316-319: Reinhold notes that the first edition of Lemprière's Bibliotheca classica, 1788, does not have an entry for "Galatea", which was inserted in later editions.
^ Reinhold 1971:316.
^ Metamorphoses x.243ff.
^ J.L. Carr, "Pygmalion and the philosophes: the animated statue in eighteenth-century France" Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 23 (1960), pp 239-55.
^ Currently at the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, it bears the expected modern title Pygmalion and Galatea.
^ Reinhold, eo. loc..
^ According to the Roman Hyginus, Fabula 142, Cinyras was a son of Paphus, thus legitimate in the patrineal manner, but Bibliotheke makes Cinyras an interloper, arriving with some of his people from Syria on the nearest coast of Asia, thus a suitor from outside, in the matrilineal manner; the conflict is instructive.
^ Bibliotheke, iii.14.3.
^ Recorded in the second-century dialogue Erotes that is traditionally misattributed to Lucian of Samosata.
^ Graves, Robert (1960). The Greek Myths, 64.1. ISBN 0140171991.

Category: Greek mythology In Greek mythology, the Nereids (NEER-ee-eds) are blue-haired sea nymphs, the fifty daughters of Nereus and Doris. ... The Bibliotheca Classica (1788), or Classical Dictionary is the best-known work of John LempriÃ¨re, an English classical scholar. ... The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland is one of the finest small privately-formed art collections open to the public in the United States. ... Gaius Julius Hyginus, (c. ... The ErÅtes or Amores is a Greek dialogue, an example of contest literature, comparing the love of women and the love of boys, preferring the latter. ... Lucian of Samosata (c. ...