Proteus- Greek GodDeity"Old Man of the Sea"

The Old Man of the Sea

Proteus was an ancient sea god who tended Poseidon's seals on the island of Pharos, near the mouth of the Nile. Each day at noon he rose from the waves and slept on the beach among his herd. He knew the truth of all things but would not give it freely. Anyone who wanted his prophecy had to seize him in his sleep and hold on while he shifted shapes, becoming fire in their hands and then rushing water. Only when he exhausted his forms would he speak.

Menelaus on Pharos

After the fall of Troy, Menelaus was stranded on Pharos for twenty days with no wind to carry him home. Proteus's own daughter Eidothea took pity on him and told him how to ambush her father. She gave Menelaus and three companions freshly flayed sealskins. They hid among the herd in the reeking skins and waited.

At midday Proteus rose from the sea, counted his seals, and lay down among them. Menelaus seized him. The god shifted through every form he could take, but Menelaus held fast until Proteus gave up and spoke. He told Menelaus that Agamemnon had been murdered at Mycenae, and that Menelaus himself would not die but be carried to the Elysian Fields.

The Phantom Helen

Euripides and Herodotus preserve a tradition in which Proteus was king of Egypt. In this version, Hera fashioned a phantom of Helen from cloud and sent it to Troy with Paris. Hermes brought the real Helen to Egypt and placed her under Proteus's protection. The sea king kept her in his palace for the duration of the war. When Menelaus arrived after Troy's fall, he found his wife had never been to Troy at all.

Aristaeus and the Bugonia

In Virgil's Georgics, the beekeeper Aristaeus lost all his hives and went to Proteus for answers. His mother Cyrene taught him the ambush: catch the old god sleeping, hold him through his changes. Proteus, pinned, revealed that the nymphs had destroyed the bees to avenge Eurydice, whom Aristaeus had chased to her death. On Proteus's instruction, Aristaeus slaughtered four bulls and four heifers and left the carcasses in a sealed chamber. Nine days later, new bees swarmed from the rotting bodies.