Galateia (Γαλάτεια) is the Greek word from gala (milk) — "milk-white." A Nereid sea-nymph loved by the Cyclops Polyphemus — she fell in love instead with the shepherd Acis, whom Polyphemus crushed with a boulder in jealousy. Distinct from the Pygmalion-Galatea.
Featured in Theocritus's Idylls and Handel's Acis and Galatea (1718).
Galateia reduces to eight — the number of Greek milk-white.