(), the prophetic old man of the sea (ἅλιος γέρων), occurs in the earliest legends as a subject of
Poseidon, and is described as seeing through the whole depth of the sea, and tending the
flocks (the seals) of Poseidon (Hom. Od. 4.365, 385, 400; Verg. G. 4.392 ; Theocr. 2.58; Hor. Carm. 1.2.7;
Philostr. Icon. 2.17). He resided in the island of Pharos, at the
distance of one day's journey from the river Aegyptus (Nile), whence he is also called the
Egyptian (Hom. Od. 4.355, 385). Virgil, however, instead of Pharos, mentions the island of Carpathos, between
Crete and Rhodes (Georg. 4.387; comp. Hom. Il.
2.676), whereas, according to the same poet, Proteus was born in Thessaly (Georg. 4.390, comp. Ace. 11.262). His life is described
as follows. At midday he rises from the flood, and sleeps in the shadow of the rocks of the
coast, and around him lie the monsters of the deep (Hom. Od. 4.400; Verg. G. 4.395). Any one wishing to
compel him to foretell the future, was obliged to catch hold of him at that time; he, indeed,
had the power of assuming every possible shape, in order to escape the necessity of
prophesying, but whenever he saw that his eudeavours were of no avail, he resumed his usual
appearance, and told the truth (Hom. Od. 4.410, &100.455,
&c.; Ov. Art. Am. i. 761, Fast. 1.369; Philostr.
Vit. Apoll. 1.4). When he had finished his prophecy he returned into the
sea (Hom. Od. 4.570). Homer (Hom. Od.
4.365) ascribes to him one daughter, Eidothea, but Strabo (x.
p.472) mentions Cabeiro as a second, aud Zenodotus (apud Eustath. ad
Hom. p. 1500) mentions Eurynome instead of Eidothea. He is sometimes represented as
riding through the sea, in a chariot drawn by Hippocampae. (Virg. Georg.
4.389.)
Another set of traditions describes Proteus as a son of Poseidon, and as a king of Egypt,
who had two sons, Telegonus and Polygonus or Tmolus. (Apollod.
2.5.9; Tzetz. ad Lyc. 124.) Diodorus however observes (1.62),
that only the Greeks called him Proteus, and that the Egyptians called him Cetes. His wife is
called Psamathe (Eur. Hel. 7) or Torone (Tzetz. ad Lyc. 115), and, besides the above mentioned sons, Theoclymenus and Theonoe are
likewise called his children. (Eur. Hel. 9, 13.) He is said to have hospitably received Dionysus during his
wanderings (Apollod. 3.5.1), and Hermes brought to him Helena
after her abduction ( Eur. Hel. 46), or, according to others,
Proteus himself took her from Paris, gave to the lover a phantom, and restored the true Helen
to Menelaus after his return from Troy. (Tzetz. ad Lyc. 112, 820; Hdt. 2.112, 118.) The story further relates
that Proteus was originally an Egyptian, but that he went to Thrace and there married Torone.
But as his sons by her used great violence towards strangers, he prayed to his father Poseidon
to carry him back to Egypt. Poseidon accordingly opened a chasm in the earth in Pallene, and
through a passage passing through the earth under the sea he led him back into Egypt. (Tzetz.
ad Lyc. 124; Eustath. ad Hom. p.
686.) A second personage of the name of Proteus is mentioned by Apollodorus (2.1.5) among the sons of Aegyptus.