GALATEA

Galatea was a sea nymph who became the object of the attentions of Polyphemus, the monstrous Cyclops who tried to crush her young lover Acis to death out of jealousy. Galatea saved him by turning him into a river, but was then unable to turn him back into a human. The story of the tragic affair was a popular subject for the artists of the Renaissance.

Below: This wall painting (1597) by Annibale Carracci (1560—1609) depicts Polyphemus playing the panpipes for Galatea.

Galatea was a Nereid, that is, a daughter of Nereus, the Old Man of the Sea, and Doris, the daughter of Oceanus. Since the Nereids were sea nymphs, it is likely that the name Galatea, meaning “milk white,” originally referred to the milky color of the froth and crests of the waves. Homer mentions Galatea in passing when he lists the daughters of Nereus, but the story of Galatea and Polyphemus was apparently first told by the poet Philoxenus in the fourth century BCE. In Sicily, Galatea was worshiped as a protectress of the flocks.

Galatea lived on the coast of Sicily, where the Cyclops Polyphemus fell in love with her and wooed her with passionate love songs. There are two different endings to the story. According to the more popular version, as told by the poet Theocritus and others, Polyphemus’s attempts to win Galatea were in vain. She would have nothing to do

She would escape by withdrawing into her element, the sea. In the other version of the story, however, Galatea finally gave in to Polyphemus, and married him. She had a son by him named Galas or Galates, who became the ancestor of the Gauls (the ancient people of Gallia, modern-day France, who also founded three major settlements in Galatia, a large territory in central Turkey, in the fourth century BCE).This variant of the myth is probably based on nothing more than the similarity between the words “Galatea” and “Galates.”

Ovid is one of several authors who relate that Polyphemus was in love with Galatea, but that she had already given her heart to the young shepherd Acis, the son of Faunus, whom she preferred to the monstrous and clumsy Cyclops. To amuse themselves, Acis and Galatea listened to the singing of the Cyclops, until one day Polyphemus caught the couple unawares as they lay in each other’s arms on the seacoast. In a jealous rage, he crushed Acis under a huge boulder, meaning to kill him. Acis, however, cried out for help to Galatea, who instantly transformed him into a river.

GALATEA

Redon’s Cyclops

In his painting of Galatea and Polyphemus, French artist Odilon Redon (1840-1916) combines features of his late, colorful style with his earlier tendency to pick somewhat bizarre subject matter. The canvas depicts the one-eyed giant looking over the sleeping sea nymph. In the foreground, Galatea lies naked in a field of flowers on a hillside. The lightness of her skin contrasts sharply with the dark green and purple of the surrounding landscape. She seems quite unaware of the presence of Polyphemus, whose towering figure protrudes from behind the ridge of the hill. The Cyclops's stooping posture, and the gentle expression of the big, round eye in the middle of his face, make him look harmless and quite endearing. Instead of bombarding the nymph with love songs, it almost looks as if the Cyclops is afraid to disturb her in her delicate slumber. At any rate, this Polyphemus is quite different from the horrible monster described by Homer (ninth or eighth century BCE) or Virgil (70-19 BCE).

Left: Looking at the painting Cyclops (1914) by Odilon Redon is like opening a window into a fantasy world.