Old Man of the Sea

“Old Man of the Sea” (halios geron) is a title Homer and Hesiod give to several sea gods, above all Proteus, who tells Menelaus how to get home in the Odyssey, and Nereus, the father of the Nereids. It is a descriptive phrase for a type of prophetic sea god rather than the name of one god.

Who Is the Old Man of the Sea?

Homer uses the phrase of Proteus. In the Odyssey, Menelaus calls him the “truthful old man of the sea”, the immortal Egyptian Proteus, who knows the depths of the entire sea and is a servant of Poseidon (Homer, Odyssey 4.349, 4.384–386). In the same poem a harbour on Ithaca is named for Phorcys, also called an “old man of the sea” (Odyssey 13.96). In the Iliad Thetis sits in the depths of the sea beside her father, the old man (Iliad 1.357–358); Thetis is a daughter of Nereus, and Hesiod explains the title: Nereus was the eldest son of Pontus, and people call him the Old Man because he is truthful and gentle, never forgets what is right and knows just and kind counsels (Hesiod, Theogony 233–236). Nereus and Doris, daughter of Ocean, were the parents of the Nereids, among them Thetis (Theogony 240–244).

Proteus and Menelaus

Menelaus, on his way home from Troy, was held on the island of Pharos off Egypt for lack of wind, since the gods were angry that he had not offered them perfect sacrifices (Odyssey 4.351–359). Proteus’ daughter Eidothea took pity on him and told him how to capture her father: at midday the Old Man comes out of the sea and sleeps in a cave among his seals, counting them first. Menelaus and three companions were to wait in the cave, seize him and hold on whatever shape he took (Odyssey 4.363–424). Proteus became a lion, a snake, a leopard, a great boar, running water and a tree, but they held him firmly, and when he gave up he answered Menelaus’ question (Odyssey 4.455–461).

The Old Man told Menelaus what had happened to his comrades: Ajax son of Oileus had been saved from the sea at the Gyrean rocks by Poseidon, but after boasting that he had escaped in spite of the gods, he drowned when Poseidon split the rock (Odyssey 4.499–511); Agamemnon, whom Hera had saved at sea, had been killed on his return by Aegisthus (Odyssey 4.512–537); and Odysseus was held on an island by the nymph Calypso (Odyssey 4.555–558). For Menelaus himself, it was not his fate to die in Argos; the gods would send him to the Elysian plain at the ends of the earth, because he was the husband of Helen and son-in-law of Zeus (Odyssey 4.561–569).

Nereus and Heracles

Apollodorus tells a similar story of Nereus. On his way to fetch the golden apples of the Hesperides, Heracles was told by nymphs, the daughters of Zeus and Themis, where to find Nereus. He seized him as he slept and held him through all the shapes he took, and did not let him go until Nereus told him where the apples and the Hesperides were (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.11).

Old Man of the Sea Sources

Homer, Odyssey 4.349–569, 13.96; Homer, Iliad 1.357–358; Hesiod, Theogony 233–244; Apollodorus, Library 2.5.11.

See Also: Nereus, Proteus, Pontus, Phorcys, Thetis, Menelaus, Eidothea, Hesperides