Galatea.
A sea nymph, daughter of Nereus and Doris, Galatea (“milk-white”) was in love with Acis, son of Faunus (or Pan). She was ardently pursued by the Cyclops Polyphemus, who sang of his passion for her and offered to make her mistress of his rustic domain. But the nymph rejected him, and when Polyphemus discovered her with Acis he crushed the youth under a rock. According to Ovid, Galatea changed Acis into a river that ever afterward bore his name. In another version of the story, Galatea eventually accepted Polyphemus and bore him a son. Galas (or Galates), the ancestor of the Gauls (Galatians).
       In postclassical drama and poetry the sea nymph Galatea has often become a shepherdess or milkmaid, a development deriving from the pastoral settings of her tale in the works of Theocritus, Virgil, and Ovid. In painting, Galatea is a popular subject for elaborate sea-triumphs, in which she is depicted standing in her cockleshell chariot, attended by other Nereids, amoretti, and tritons; these scenes are similar to, and sometimes interchangeably identified as, sea-triumphs of Aphrodite or Amphitrite.

Further Reference: Dörrie, Heinrich. 1968. Die schöne Galatea: eine Gestalt Rande des griechischen Mythos in antiker und neuzeitlicher Sicht. München: Heimeran.

See also Amphitrite; Aphrodite, Birth; and Cylopes.