Editing Proteus (section)

===Proteus, king of Egypt===
{{main|Proteus of Egypt}}
In the ''[[Odyssey]]'' (iv.430ff)  Menelaus wrestles with "Proteus of Egypt, the immortal old man of the sea who never lies, who sounds the deep in all its depths, Poseidon's servant" ([[Robert Fagles]]'s translation). Proteus of Egypt is mentioned in an alternative version of the story of [[Helen of Troy]] in the tragedy ''Helen'' of [[Euripides]] (produced in 412 BC). The often unconventional playwright introduces a "real" Helen and a "phantom" Helen (who caused the [[Trojan War]]), and gives a backstory that makes the father of his character [[Theoclymenus]], Proteus, a king in Egypt who had been wed to a [[Nereid]] Psamathe. In keeping with one of his themes in ''Helen'', Euripides mentions in passing ''Eido'' ("image"), a daughter of the king and therefore sister of Theoclymenus who underwent a name-change after her adolescence and became ''Theonoë'', "god-minded", since she was as it turned out capable of foreseeing the future—as such, she is a prophet who appears as a crucial character in the play. The play's king Proteus is already dead at the start of the action, and his tomb is present onstage. It appears that he is only marginally related to the "Old Man of the Sea"<ref name="Nottingham">Euripides. [http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/classics/staff/LSF/Euripides/helen.html "Helen"]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050301083542/http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/classics/staff/LSF/Euripides/helen.html |date=2005-03-01 }}. Nottingham University.</ref> and should not be confused with the sea god Proteus, although it is tempting to see Euripides as playing a complex literary game with the sea god's history—both Proteuses, for example, are protectors of the house of Menelaus, both are connected with the sea, both dwell in Egypt, and both are "grandfatherly" or "ancient" figures.

At [[Lighthouse of Alexandria|Pharos]] a king of Egypt named Proteus welcomed the young god [[Dionysus]] in his wanderings.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Greek Myths|last=Graves|first=Robert|publisher=Penguin|year=2012|location=New York|via=Google Books}}</ref> In Hellenistic times, Pharos was the site of the [[Lighthouse of Alexandria]], one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece|last=Wilson|first=Nigel|publisher=Routledge|year=2006|location=New York|page=36|via=Google Books}}</ref>