Proteus. A sea-god, often called Old Man of the Sea, Proteus was a son of Poseidon (or Oceanus). He was a shepherd of seals and is usually said to have lived on the island of Pharos. His chief attribute was the ability to change his shape at will (hence our word “protean”). He was also skilled in prophecy and was called the Carpathian seer after his haunt near Carpathus on the Aegean sea. Although his power of transformation allowed him to escape capture, if he was held fast until he changed back into his original shape he was obliged to answer his captor’s questions. Becalmed on Pharos on the way home from Troy, Menelaus compelled Proteus to relate the fates of other Greeks. Aristaeus also forced the god to tell him why his bees had died.

    Proteus, king of Pharos, is mentioned in Euripides’ Helen as the ruler who sheltered Helen while her eidolon (image) was taken to Troy. While this Proteus seems to be a separate figure from the sea-god, most scholars agree that they represent divergent strands of a common myth.

   

    Classical Sources. Homer, Odyssey 4.349—570. Herodotus, History 2.noff. Euripides, Helen 6ff., 44ff. Orphic Hymns 25, ‘To Proteus.” Virgil, Georgies 4.386—529. Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.731—37, 220-26, 249. Apollodorus, Biblioteca 2.5.9, Epitome 3,5. Hyginus, Fabulae 118. Lucian, Dialogues if the Sea Gods 4, “Menelaus and Proteus.”