Proteus, The sonne of Oceanus and Tethis, called of the paynims the Gad of the sea, whome Homer nameth to bee the heardman of the fishes called Phocæ, and also a Prophet, notwithstanding he woulde not giue aunswere, but beingconstrained by Misses. He allo turned himselfe into sundry figures, sometime being like a fiame of fire, sometime like a bull, an other time like a terrible serpÊt. Homerus in Odys. Vergilius Georgicorum quar. In dery deede he was king of Aegipt in the time of Priamus king of Troye. Of him came this pronerbe.*Proteo mutabilior, more chaungeable than Proteus, applyed to him that in his acts or wordes is vnstable.
Lewis and Short: Latin dictionary
Prōteus (dissyl.), ĕi and ĕos, m., = *prwteu/s, a sea-god who often changed his form; he was in the service of Neptune, and kept his sea-calves, Ov. M. 8, 731; 2, 9; id. A. A. 1, 761; Hor. C. 1, 2, 7; Verg. G. 4, 388; Ov. F. 1, 367: Protei columnae, i. e.
the boundary of Egypt
, Verg. A. 11, 262.— Transf., of a fickle person: Protea tenere, Hor. Ep. 1, 1, 90; of a cunning person, id. S. 2, 3, 71; cf. Amm. 29, 1, 39.