| Galatea | |
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Real Name |
Galatea |
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First Appearance |
Greek Myth |
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Created by |
Greek Myth |
Origin[]
Galatea is the post-antiquity name popularly applied to the statue carved of ivory alabaster by Pygmalion of Cyprus, which then came to life in Greek mythology.
In Ovid's Metamorphoses, where the king Pygmalion is made into a sculptor who fell in love with a marble 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. They had a daughter, Paphos, from whom is derived the name of the city. In some versions, Paphos was a son, and they also had a daughter, Metharme.
Galatea is also the name of a sea-nymph, one of the fifty Nereids (daughters of Nereus) mentioned by Hesiod and Homer. In Theocritus Idylls VI and XI she is the object of desire of the cyclops Polyphemus and is linked with Polyphemus again in the myth of Acis and Galatea in Ovid's Metamorphoses. She is also mentioned in Virgil's Eclogues and Aeneid.
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of Galatea before Janurary 1, 1929 are public domain in the US.
Some notable appearances are listed below:
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- Metamorphoses
- Pygmaleon and his Statue (1390)
- Pigmalion (1598)
- The Ideals (Die Ideale) (1795-6)
- Pygmalion and the Statue (1697-1700)
- Liber Amoris: or, the New Pygmalion (1823)
- Pygmalion, or the Cyprian Statuary (1823–25)
- Pygmalion (1851)
- Pygmalion (1856)
- Lines Spoken in the Character of Pygmalion (1863)
- Pygmalion the Sculptor (1864)
- Earthly Paradise (1868)
- Pygmalion and Galatea (1871)
- Pygmalion (1881)
- A Sculptor and Other Poems (1881)
- Galatea (1884)
- Pygmalion (1891)
- The Lost Magic (1900)
- The New Pygmalion or the Statue's Choice (1911)
- Pygmalion (1913–17)
- El Señor de Pigmalión (1921)
- Pygmalion to Galatea (1926)
Public Domain Comic Appearances[]
- Master Comics #41: Captain Marvel Jr. encounters the Greek sculptor Pygmalion who had prayed to Aphrodite change his female sculpture into the living woman named Galatea. In this version, Pygmalion was given the power to bring the inanimate to life by the gods and he eventually turned himself into a statue and was placed into a museum. He suddenly awakened one day and began to bring the other statues as well fossils and taxidermy to life including statues of Neptune and Thoth as well as saber-tooth tiger, a gorilla, and a brontosaurus.
- Tales of the Mysterious Traveler #10 - The Mysterious Traveler narrates the story of The Statues That Came to Life where Pellas tries to duplicate Pygmalion's feat, and his statue comes to life, but she loves her sculptor Phidias, not Pellas.
Notes[]
- A variant of this theme can also be seen in the story of Pinocchio, in which a wooden puppet is transformed into a "real boy", though in this case the puppet possesses sapience prior to its transformation; it is the puppet and not its creator, the woodcarver Geppetto, who beseeches the divine powers for the miracle.
- In George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play Pygmalion, a modern variant of the myth, the underclass flower-girl Eliza Doolittle is metaphorically "brought to life" by a phonetics professor, Henry Higgins, who teaches her to refine her accent and conversation and otherwise conduct herself with upper-class manners in social situations. This play in turn inspired a 1938 film adaptation, as well as the 1956 musical My Fair Lady and its 1964 film adaptation.
- Dr. William Moulton Marston drew inspiration from the Galatea and Pygmalion myth in creating his allegorical myth of Wonder Woman's clay birth, with Hippolyte being in the "Pygmalion" role sculpting her daughter Wonder Woman (as the "Galatea") from clay and given life by Aphrodite's breath.
- A character inspired by Power Girl named Galatea appears in the DC Animated Universe (DCAU) series Justice League Unlimited who is a clone of Supergirl.