Myspace Layouts - Myspace Editor
Myspace Layouts - Myspace Editor
In Greek mythology, Proteus is an early sea-god, one of several deities whom Homer calls the "Old Man of the Sea"[1], whose name suggests the "first", as protogonos is 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. "[There] appeared a very terrible sea-animal, which raised itself high above the water. It had a long, sharp snout, and blew like a whale, had broad, large flippers, and the body was, as it were, covered with hard skin, and it was very wrinkled and uneven on its skin; moreover, on the lower part it was formed like a snake, and when it went under water again, it cast itself backwards, and in doing so, it raised its tail above the water, then rippled back into the sea as quickly as it appeared. That evening, we had very bad weather, and many of the men fell ill. It was said that the voyage was damned, and the captain threw himself overboard in a fit of hysteria in the middle of the night."
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