Acis

Polyphemus left his sheep and hollow cave to please Galatea. Love softened his savage nature. He combed his stiff hair with strong rakes, trimmed his bristling beard with a sickle, and studied his face in the water. His thirst for blood was quenched, and ships could pass safely near him. Yet Galatea did not return his love. She loved Acis, the son of Pan and the nymph Symaethis.

Galatea was a sea nymph, the daughter of Nereus and Doris. She told the sea nymphs that she could not escape Polyphemus's love, though she had rejected other suitors. Polyphemus saw that she preferred Acis to him. His jealousy and anger grew. He declared that Acis would feel the strength in his body if he caught him. He threatened to tear the youth's limbs apart and scatter them across the fields and through Galatea's waters.

Polyphemus then went through his woods and familiar pastures in a rage. He found Acis and crushed him beneath a rock. Acis's scarlet blood flowed from under the stone. After a while, its redness faded. The blood became a stream, first clouded like a brook swollen by rain, then growing clear.

The rock split open. Tall reeds sprang from its hollow, and bubbling water trickled from the opening. Acis rose from the stone with a wreath of reeds around his horned head. His body was larger than before, and his colour was grey. He was still Acis, but he had been changed into water. From that time, he remained in the form of the river Acis in Sicily.