|
|
Proteus
|
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Titans and Olympians
Chthonic deities
Personified concepts
Other deities
Aquatic deities
Amphitrite
Ceto
Glaucus
Naiades
Nereides
Nereus
Oceanides
Oceanus
Ophion
Phorcys
Pontus
Poseidon
Proteus
Tethys
Thetis
Triton
In Greek mythology, Proteus (???te??) is an early sea-god, one of several deities whom Homer calls the "Old Man of the Sea", whose name suggests the "first" (from Greek "p??t??" - protos, "first"), as protogonos (p??t??????) is the "primordial" or the "firstborn". He became the son of Poseidon in the Olympian theogony (Odyssey iv. 432), or of Nereus and Doris, or of Oceanus and a Naiad, and was made the herdsman of Poseidon's seals, the great bull seal at the center of the harem. He can foretell the future, but, in a mytheme familiar from several cultures, will change his shape to avoid having to; he will answer only to someone who is capable of capturing him. From this feature of 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 adaptability. The earliest attested form of the name is the Mycenaean Greek ?????????? po-ro-te-u, written in Linear B syllabic script.
Cite error: There are tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{Reflist}} template or a tag; see the help page.
|
|
Created By:
System
|
|
|
|
|