Thalassa

THALASSA was the primordial goddess (protogenos) of the sea. Mingled with Pontos (Pontus), her male counterpart, she produced the fish and other sea creatures. Thalassa was the literal body of the sea and in the fables of Aesop, manifests as a woman formed of sea-water rising from her native element. Poseidon and Amphitrite, the anthropomorphic king and queen of the sea, were the rulers of the elemental Pontos and Thalassa.

Thalassa is depicted in Greco-Roman mosaics as a matronly woman, half-submerged in the sea, with crab-claw horns, seaweed for clothes, and a ship's oar in her hand.