Acis and Galatea (, ) are characters from Greek mythology later associated together in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The episode tells of the love between the mortal Acis and the Nereid (sea-nymph) Galatea; when the jealous Cyclops Polyphemus kills Acis, Galatea transforms her lover into an immortal river spirit. The episode was made the subject of poems, operas, paintings, and statues in the Renaissance and after.
Mythology
Galathea or Galatea (), the "glorious" and "comely" daughter of the 'Old Man of the Sea' Nereus and the Oceanid Doris, was a sea-nymph anciently attested in the work of both Homer and Hesiod, where she is described as the fairest and most beloved of the 50 Nereids. According to Theocritus (Idylls 6 and 11) she aroused the love of a most improbable suitor, the Sicilian Cyclops Polyphemus. Her name is also mentioned several times by Virgil.
In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Galatea appears as the beloved of Acis, the son of Faunus and the river-nymph Symaethis, daughter of the River Symaethus. One day, when Galatea was lying beside the sea with her lover, Polyphemus saw them. The latter, in his jealousy, tore an enormous boulder out of the side of Mt. Etna and hurled it at the young man. Although Acis tried to flee, the huge rock crushed him beneath to death. Galatea then turned his blood into sparkling waters as it trickled from under the rock, so creating the stream on Etna that bore his name, the Sicilian River Acis. She turned her lover himself into the horned god of the stream. He retained his original features except that he was larger and his face was now a deep blue.
This version of the tale now occurs nowhere earlier than in Ovid's work and might perhaps have been a fiction invented by the poet, "suggested by the manner in which the little river springs forth from under a rock". But according to the Greek scholar Athenaeus, the story was first concocted by Philoxenus of Cythera as a political satire against the Sicilian tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse, whose favourite concubine, Galatea, shared her name with the nymph. Others claim that the story was invented to explain the presence of a shrine dedicated to Galatea on Mount Etna.
According to a later tradition Galatea eventually yielded to Polyphemus' embraces. Their son, Galas or Galates, became the ancestor of the Gauls. The Hellenistic historian Timaeus, who was of Sicilian birth, described Galates as a son of Polyphemos and Galateia.
Galatea together with Doto and Panope, escorted her sister Thetis out of the sea to her wedding with Peleus. In Homer's Iliad, Galatea and her other sisters appear to Thetis when she cries out in sympathy for the grief of Achilles at the slaying of his friend Patroclus.
Cultural references
Literary and operatic
During Renaissance and Baroque times the story emerged once more as a popular theme. In Spain, Luis de Góngora wrote the narrative poem, Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea, published in 1627. It is particularly noted for its depiction of landscape and for the sensual description of the love of Acis and Galatea. The poem was written in homage to an earlier narrative with the same title by Luis Carillo y Sotomayor (1611) The story was also given operatic treatment in a zarzuela written by Antonio de Literes (1708).
In France, Jean-Baptiste Lully wrote the opera Acis et Galatée (1686) which was about the Greek myth. Described by him as a pastoral-heroic work, it depicts a love triangle between the three main charactersAcis, Galatea, and Poliphème. Poliphème murders Acis out of jealousy, but Acis is revived and turned into a river by Neptune. In Italy Giovanni Bononcini's one-act opera Polifemo followed in 1703.
Shortly afterwards George Frideric Handel composed the cantata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo (1708). After Handel's move to England, he gave the story a new treatment in his pastoral opera Acis and Galatea with an English libretto provided by John Gay. Initially composed in 1718, the work went through many revisions and was later to be given updated orchestrations by both Mozart and Mendelssohn. As a pastoral work where Polyphemus plays only a minor part, it largely focuses on the two lovers.
While staying in London, Nicola Porpora composed the opera Polifemo which features Acis and Galatea as well as the former's encounter with Polyphemus. In Austria later in the century, Joseph Haydn composed Acide e Galatea (1763). Designed for an imperial wedding, it was given a happier ending centered on the transformation scene after the murder of Acis as the pair declare their undying love.
