| Subject: Re: "I, Proteus!" |
Author:
tjm
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Date Posted: 01/17/06 3:07:32pm
In reply to:
krz
's message, ""I, Proteus!"" on 01/17/06 2:26:22pm
with all the usage of the word "protean" being bandied about the forum recently, i had to find a way to work in "Proteus".
this reference is from wikipedia so please don't use it as support material for any legally binding documents. who knows where this stuff comes from but it sounds accurate to me:
Proteus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about Proteus from the Greek mythology.
For other meanings of the word, see proteus disambiguation).
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Titans and Olympians
Chthonic deities
Personified concepts
Aquatic deities
Poseidon
Oceanus
Ceto
Nereus
Glaucus
Thetis
Amphitrite
Tethys
Triton
Ophion
Proteus
Phorcys
Pontus
Oceanids
Nereids
Naiads
Proteus as "seen" by Andrea AlciatoIn Greek mythology, Proteus is an early sea-god, one of several deities whom Homer calls the "Old Man of the Sea", whose name suggests the "first", as protogonos is the "firstborn". No mention is made of his parents, until for later mythographers he became the son of Poseidon in the Olympian theogony, or of Nereus and Doris, or of Oceanus and a Naiad and the herdsman of Poseidon's seals. He can foretell the future, but will change his shape to avoid having to; he will only answer to someone who is capable of capturing him. From this Proteus comes the adjective protean, with the general meaning of "versatile", "mutable", "capable of assuming many forms": "Protean" has positive connotations of flexibility, versatility and adaptablity.
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The myth of Proteus
According to Homer (Odyssey 4:412), the sandy island of Pharos situated off the coast of the Nile Delta was the home of Proteus, the oracular Old Man of the Sea and herdsman of the sea-beasts. In the Odyssey, Menelaus relates to Telemachus that he had been becalmed here on his journey home from the Trojan War. He learned from Proteus' daughter that if he could capture her father he could force him to reveal which of the gods he had offended, and how he could propitiate them and return home. Proteus emerged from the sea to sleep among his colony of seals, but Menelaus was successful at holding him, though Proteus took the forms of a lion, a serpent, a leopard, a pig, even of water and a tree. Proteus then answered truthfully, further informing Menelaus that his brother Agamemnon had been murdered on his return home, that Ajax the Lesser had been shipwrecked and killed, and that Odysseus was stranded on Calypso's Isle.
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