God · Character in Homer’s Odyssey
Proteus
The shifting Old Man of the Sea
Answers everything truthfully, but only after every shape has failed.
The immortal Old Man of the Sea who herds the seals off the Egyptian island of Pharos. On his own daughter's coaching, Menelaus and three picked men ambush him at noon and hold on through lion, snake, leopard, boar, water and tree, until he yields the truth: the way home, the fates of the homecoming kings, and Odysseus alive and weeping on Calypso's island.
Bonds
- Proteus warns Menelaus — the way home, and the news
- Menelaus captor of Proteus — held through every shape
Appears in
- Book IV Conference of Telemachus and Menelaus
Scenes
- Stranded on Pharos — Book IV. Windbound off Egypt, Eidothea finds Menelaus
- Snaring Proteus — Book IV. In sealskins, Menelaus seizes Proteus
- Proteus Demands Sacrifice — Book IV. Proteus demands hecatombs before sailing home
- Odysseus on Calypso’s Isle — Book IV. Odysseus weeps, Menelaus promised Elysium