According to Homer, the sandy island of Pharos situated off the coast of the Nile Delta was the residence of Proteus, the oracular Previous Guy 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 dwelling from the Trojan War. He discovered from Proteus' daughter, Eidothea, that if he could capture her father he could force him to expose which of the gods he had offended, and how he could propitiate them and return house. Proteus emerged from the sea to snooze amid his colony of seals, but Menelaus was successful in keeping him, even though Proteus took the sorts of a lion, a serpent, a leopard, a pig, even of drinking water or a tree. According to Virgil in the fourth Georgic, at one time the bees of Aristaeus, son of Apollo, all died of a disease. Aristaeus went to his mother, Cyrene, for assistance she informed him that Proteus could tell him how to avert another this kind of disaster, but would do so only if compelled. Aristeus did so, and Proteus at some point gave up and told him to sacrifice twelve animals to the gods, leave the corpses in the put of sacrifice, and return several days in the future. When Aristaeus returned after the several days he uncovered in one particular of the carcasses a swarm of bees, which he took to his apiary. The bees have been in no way once again troubled by illness. The youngsters of Proteus, apart from Eidothea, consist of Polygonus and Telegonus, who both challenged Heracles and have been killed, one particular of Heracles quite a few prosperous encounters with associates of the entire world purchase..