Euripides, Helen 582).Īs there is no great achievement in believing something which is perfectly ordinary, some have found that the account of the phantom, which is sometimes said to have been fashioned and sent to Troy by Zeus himself, deserved more credibility than the more common tale of the Achaeans and Trojans slaughtering each other during a decade for the sake of a real woman. "To Troy I went not: that a phantom was." ( Helen to Menelaus. But in the meantime, Hermes carried the real Helen to Egypt, giving her to King Proteus 3, so that he would guard her. For the sake of this phantom, they assert, Achaeans and Trojans slaughtered each other during ten years, and the city was destroyed.
However, others affirm that Helen never reached Troy, and that the seducer Paris was accompanied by a phantom fashioned out of clouds, which Hera fashioned. Next, Paris came to that city, fetched his bride and took her to Troy, and as the Trojans refused to restore her to her husband Menelaus, a terrible war ensued, and Troy was destroyed. But he, nurturing a strange notion about his role as a judge, let himself be bribed, so that Aphrodite received the award, and he was given in exchange the hand of the Helen, queen of Sparta. As a result, the three goddesses who contested the prize were judged by the shepherd Paris on Mount Ida. And for this reason, some believed that the Greeks, unable to grasp what they had in front of their eyes, thought that Proteus 3 was changing his form when he just changed his crown.Īs it has been told many times, Eris threw an apple as a prize of beauty during the wedding party of Peleus and Thetis. Now, some have thought that the Greeks, being so childish as to imagine and create fantastic tales out of everyday occurrences, conceived the idea of Proteus 2 changing his shape for the following reason: Proteus 3, they say, obeying a practice among the Egyptian rulers, wore upon his head now the forepart of a lion, now that of a bull, now a serpent, now trees or fire, as symbols of his sovereignty. But then again, if he is a god, then he does not need astrologers in order to know anything, but instead the astrologers would be there in order to learn from him. It is also asserted that Proteus 3, as king of Egypt, gained much experience through his association with astrologers. But if, as some believe, Proteus 2 and Proteus 3 are one and the same, then it would be possible for him, being an immortal god, both to receive Dionysus 2 and later rule Egypt at the time of the Trojan War, as it was also possible for him to change his shape into that of an animal, a tree, or even fire. For this happened several generations before that great war. Proteus 3, they say, ruled in Egypt at the time of the Trojan War, but this assertion is inconsistent with the account that affirms that he received the roaming Dionysus 2, who after discovering the vine, was driven mad by Hera and came to Egypt.
It is told that when Egypt had gone through a period of five generations without a ruler, Proteus 3, an obscure man in the sense that nothing is known about his origin, came to the throne. For those who tell this story affirm that Helen never reached Troy.
Proteus 3 is remembered for having received Dionysus 2, and for keeping Helen in Egypt while Paris went to Troy with a phantom of her fashioned out of clouds. For, among other things, both are connected to the island of Pharos, where Proteus 3 lived and Proteus 2 came to rest every day. Proteus 3 was the king of Egypt, who not seldom is identified with the god Proteus 2.