1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Acis

ACIS, in Greek mythology, the son of Pan (Faunus) and the nymph Symaethis, a beautiful shepherd of Sicily, was the lover of the Nereïd Galatea. His rival the Cyclops Polyphemus surprised them together, and crushed him to pieces with a rock. His blood, gushing forth from beneath, was metamorphosed by Galatea into the river bearing his name (now Fiume di Jaci), which was celebrated for the coldness of its waters (Ovid, Met. xiii. 750; Silius Italicus, Punica, xiv. 221).