In
Greek mythology Galatea was one of the
Nereids, one of the fifty daughters of
Nereus and
Doris. A shepherd named
Acis and a
Cyclops named
Polyphemus both fell in love with her, but she returned the love of Acis only. Polyphemus came upon them in the woods, and in a fit of rage killed Acis (in the traditional
cyclopean manner -- he threw stones after him as he was swimming out to sea). From his blood, Galatea made the river
Acis.
In yet another Greek myth, Galatea was a statue made by Pygmalion. He attempted to sculpt his ideal woman, and did such a good job, that he fell in love with the statue. The Goddess Aphrodite took pity on him and brought the statue to life. This is of course, the basis of the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, later to be made in to the musical My Fair Lady.
Galatea is also the name of the irregularly-shaped fourth moon of Neptune, discovered by Voyager 2 in 1989.
Equatorial radius .............. 79 km
Diameter ....................... 180 km
Mean distance from Neptune ..... 61,950 km
Orbital period ................. 0.428745 days
Mean orbital velocity .......... 10.52 km/s
Orbital inclination ............ 0.05 degrees
Orbital eccentricity ........... 0.0001
Visual geometric albedo ........ 0.06
Visual magnitude from earth .... 22.3
Mass, mean density, and rotational period are unknown.
The moons of Neptune are Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, Galatea, Larissa, Proteus, Triton, and Nereid.