Galatea

myminifactory

Galatea is a name that has been closely tied to the statue carved from ivory by Pygmalion of Cyprus, which then sprang to life in Greek mythology; in modern English the name usually refers back to that story. Galatea is also the object of desire for Polyphemus in Theocritus's Idylls VI and XI, and she is once again linked with Polyphemus in the myth of Acis and Galatea told by Ovid in his Metamorphoses. The name "Galatea" has become so firmly associated with Pygmalion's statue that it seems ancient, but its use with Pygmalion actually started with a writer from after the classical period. No existing ancient text mentions the statue's name, although Pausanias does mention a statue of Calm, Galene. A sculpture of the subject displayed by Falconet at the Paris Salon in 1763 carried the title "Pygmalion at the feet of his statue that comes to life". That sculpture, now housed at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, is currently titled "Pygmalion and Galatea". According to Meyer Reinhold, the name "Galatea" was first widely circulated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau's scène lyrique of 1762, Pygmalion. The name had become a common feature of pastoral fictions due to the well-known myth of Acis and Galatea; one of Honoré d'Urfé's characters in L'Astrée was named Galatea, though not this sculptural creation.