In 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 "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.