Proteus

Proteus was a prophetic sea god in Greek mythology, an “old man of the sea” who served Poseidon and tended his seals. He knew the past, the present and the future, but would only share it if a mortal could hold him while he changed into one animal or element after another. He is best known from the Odyssey, where he tells the stranded Menelaus how to get home.

Who Was Proteus?

Parentage and Home

Homer calls Proteus an immortal Egyptian old man of the sea who knows the depths of all the sea and is Poseidon’s servant (Odyssey 4.384–386). Apollodorus names him as a son of Poseidon, and tells that Heracles killed Proteus’ sons Polygonus and Telegonus at Torone (Library 2.5.9). Proteus is not one of the primordial gods who came into being at the start of the world; the early sources make him a sea god in the service of Poseidon.

His home is usually in or near Egypt. In the Odyssey he lives on the island of Pharos, a day’s sail from the Egyptian coast (Odyssey 4.354–357). In Euripides’ Helen he is the ruler of Egypt, who lived on Pharos and married the sea-nymph Psamathe; their children were Theoclymenus and the girl Eido (Euripides, Helen 4–11). Virgil places him in the Carpathian sea and says that he also visits the harbors of Pallene in Macedonia (Georgics 4.387–395).

Proteus and Menelaus

On his way home from Troy, Menelaus was held for twenty days on Pharos by the gods, because he had not sacrificed to them, and his men were starving. Eidothea, the daughter of Proteus, pitied him and told him how to catch her father. At midday Proteus comes out of the sea and sleeps in a cave, surrounded by the seals of Halosydne. He counts them and lies down among them “like a herdsman among his flocks” (Odyssey 4.351–413). Eidothea hid Menelaus and three of his men beneath sealskins that she brought from the sea (Odyssey 4.435–446).

When Proteus lay down to sleep, the men seized him. He turned first into a bearded lion, then a serpent, a leopard and a great boar, and then into flowing water and a tall leafy tree, but they held on until he gave up and spoke (Odyssey 4.454–461). Proteus told Menelaus that he must return to the river Egypt and sacrifice hecatombs to the gods before he could sail home (Odyssey 4.472–480). He also reported what had happened to the other Greeks: Ajax son of Oileus had been wrecked and drowned (Odyssey 4.499–511), Agamemnon had been killed by Aegisthus (Odyssey 4.512–537), and Odysseus was held on an island by the nymph Calypso (Odyssey 4.551–560). Finally, he foretold that Menelaus would not die in Argos but would be sent to the Elysian plain, because he was Zeus’ son-in-law (Odyssey 4.561–569).

Proteus and Aristaeus

Virgil gives Proteus a second role (Georgics 4.315–558). The bee-keeper Aristaeus, a son of Apollo and the nymph Cyrene, lost all his bees to disease and went to his mother in distress. She told him to seize Proteus, the seer of Poseidon, who knew everything that was, is and will be (Georgics 4.387–393). Aristaeus caught him and held him through his changes. Proteus explained that the loss was Orpheus’ revenge: Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus, had died of a snake bite while fleeing from Aristaeus (Georgics 4.453–459).

It is Cyrene, not Proteus, who then tells her son how to win back the favor of the nymphs who had been Eurydice’s companions. He is to sacrifice four bulls and four heifers, leave the carcasses in a grove, and nine days later offer poppies to Orpheus and sacrifice a calf to Eurydice. When he did so, a swarm of bees rose from the rotting flesh of the animals (Georgics 4.531–558).

Proteus and Helen

A different tradition makes Proteus a king, not a sea god. Herodotus says that Egyptian priests spoke of a Proteus who ruled at Memphis, and that when Paris was driven to Egypt with Helen, Proteus kept Helen and the treasure for Menelaus and sent Paris away (Herodotus 2.112–120). In Euripides’ Helen, Zeus sends the real Helen to Egypt, leaving a phantom at Troy, and she lives in Proteus’ house, which is now ruled by his son Theoclymenus (Helen 31–50). The Epitome of Apollodorus mentions this version too (Epitome 3.5, 6.29).

Proteus Sources

Homer, Odyssey 4.351–413, 4.454–480, 4.499–569; Virgil, Georgics 4.315–558; Euripides, Helen 4–50; Herodotus, Histories 2.112–120; Apollodorus, Library 2.5.9 and Epitome 3.5, 6.29.

See Also: Old Man of the Sea, Menelaus, Poseidon, Helen, Nereus, Phorcys, Aristaeus, Cyrene, Eurydice, Orpheus