Proteus (mythology)

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Der Höllische Proteus (illustration of the book Der Höllische Proteus […] by Erasmus Finx )
One of many depictions of Proteus (here: Jörg Breu; 16th century)

Proteus (Πρωτεύς), the "old man from the sea", is an early sea ​​god in Greek mythology .

Ancient myth

Proteus is a sea god, subordinate to Poseidon and sometimes described as his son. However, from the whole of ancient fine art, no reliable portrait of Proteus has survived. Proteus tended Poseidon's seals and other marine creatures. He has several homes, including the islands of Karpathos and Pharos .

As “an anthropomorphic symbol of the sea”, Proteus, like other aquatic deities ( Nereus , Glaukos , Phorkys ), has their three distinctive features: the worthy old age ( hálios géron ἅλιος γέρων , “the age of the sea”, according to Homer, Odyssey 4,349), the gift prophetic knowledge (divination) as well as the proverbial ability for spontaneous, polymorphic shape transformation (metamorphosis).

Telemachie in Homer's Odyssey (4, 349-570) gives a broad representation of Proteus that influences all subsequent reception . There Proteus lived as a wise, old and versatile sea god on the island of Pharos as a seal keeper who rose from the sea every noon to control his seal herd. He had the gift of prophecy but was reluctant to reveal his knowledge. So it was difficult to get a prophecy out of him. He tried to escape the questions by taking on different shapes. This made him a master of transformation who could take any form, even that of water, fire, or a wild beast. In order to elicit a prophecy from him, one had to outsmart him. Menelaus , on the advice of Proteus' daughter Eidothea , approached him during the return from Troy at noon as a seal. So he was able to overcome the sleeping Proteus, tie him up and ask about the correct way home. In order to escape the grasp of Menelaus and his companions, Proteus transforms one after the other into a lion, a snake, a leopard, a boar, even in water and in a tree and, when these attempts to escape were unsuccessful, finally back into his old form . On another occasion, Apollon's son Aristaios surprised him when he was lying between his seals and was explained by what offense he had offended the nymphs and Orpheus, who had then let his bees die. He also learned how to reconcile them.

Euripides stands for a different stream of tradition . In his drama "Helena" (verses 1-67; cf. Apollodorus, Epitome 3,5) he mentions Proteus as an honorable and righteous king in Egypt. There Proteus protects the beautiful Helena on Hermes ' order during the Trojan War , because Paris had only kidnapped an illusion to Troy. According to Herodotus (2, 112-120), Paris herself brought Helen to Egypt. There he was chased away by Proteus and Helena later returned to her husband.

Greek philosophy and literature

In the context of his criticism of myths, Plato considers the reports of the metamorphoses of Proteus to be lying poet inventions ( Politeia 381d; cf. Euthyphron 15d, Euthydemos 288b, Ion 541e). At the end of the 5th century AD, however, the Neo-Platonist Proklos Diadochos ( In rem publ. P. 109-114 Kroll) will nevertheless attempt to maintain this ability of Proteus to change while maintaining the Platonic postulate ( Politeia 381b ff.) That the deity is immutable to interpret.

The philosophy of the Stoa and its allegorical interpretation of myths used the Proteus figure and its ability to transform to illustrate the creative changes in the elements in the cosmos (cosmogony). Even Francis Bacon took up this Deutungsart. ( Sapientia veterum c. 13). Proteus is even celebrated as the personal primordial god of the universe in the Orphic hymns ( hymn 25), which were written in the 2nd century AD at the earliest , because nature has arranged everything in him, as can be recognized by its many metamorphoses.

In his 4th “Conversation of the Sea Gods” ( Dialogi Marini ) (“Menelaus and Proteus”), Lukian of Samosata takes Proteus' ability to transform to an ironic point by claiming about the god of the sea that he can be both on water and on fire (cf. also Ovid, Metamorphosen 7,730-737). The figure of the deceitful wandering preacher Peregrinus Proteus, created by Lukian, forms an independent line of tradition that repeatedly reflects back to the mythical Proteus .

Latin Literature of Pagan Antiquity

In Latin literature, the Proteus' seer function is particularly attractive to the authors. Virgil emphasizes Proteus' omniscience more than the previous tradition, and he also ties in with the Homeric bondage motif when he lets Aristaeus question the sea god about the death of his bees in the finale of his Georgica (4, 387-529). The Virgil admirer Silius Italicus gives Proteus the epithet praesagus (“Weissager”, Punica 7,429); the Bern scholien on Virgil's Georgica (5th century AD) even explicitly name Proteus as propheta . Virgil's description of Proteus' ecstatic impulses during his fortune-telling is vivid (4, 450-452): Ad haec vates vi denique multa / ardentis oculos intorsit lumine glauco, / et graviter frendens sic fatis orare solvit (on it now finally, from convulsion, / terribly shaken, the seer the flashing blue eyes / and with a dull crunch loosens his tongue at the saying of fate; trans. Johannes and Maria Götte). Taking into account the Virgilian specifications, but with the view of the Roman love-elegance , Ovid ( Metamorphoses 11, 221-223. 249-256) is particularly interested in the fact that Proteus, with his gift of vision , can cleverly help Peleus in the erotic conquest of Thetis .

In the time of Emperor Augustus, Hyginus collected and linked the mythological narrative traditions of Proteus in his Mythen-Handbuch Fabulae (esp. No. 118).

Horace subjects the Proteus figure to a clear moral assessment. In the description of an impending cosmic catastrophe for corrupt mankind ( Carm. 1,2,7), he lets the seals of Poseidon lead to Mount Athos in the sense of an Adynatons Proteus. For Horace, Proteus is not only a mythological person, but also a proverbial expression for instability of character (Horace, Epistulae 1,1,90) or cunning and cunning cunning (Horace, satires 2,3,71: sceleratus Proteus ). The ancient Horace commentator Porphyrius ( ad Hor. Epist. 1,1,90: ex fabula Vergilii factum proverbium ) even explicitly attributes this popularization effect to Virgil.

Silius Italicus ( Punica 7.419-493) creates new localities for the Proteus myth by having the sea god proclaim the future of Rome in his inaccessible grotto on Capri in view of the approaching ships of the Punians.

Reception in Christian antiquity and the Middle Ages

The reception of Proteus in ancient Christianity starts with clear reservations. Clement of Alexandria ( Paidagogos 3,1) does not classify Proteus among the gods, but among the daimones (small deities). According to Gregory of Nazianz , Satan is a Proteus for Christians ( carm. 2,1,83,77ff; cf. also Augustine , de civitate dei 10,10), Proteus himself a sheer mythical creature. An unreliable friend disappears like Proteus, says Sidonius Apollinaris ( Epist. 3,13,10). Christian writers of the early church take up this aspect of Virgil and Horace, such as Hieronymus ( Adv. Iov. 2.21) and Augustine ( De ordine 2.15.43; Contra Academicos 3.5.11; 6.13). This way of speaking is carried on into the Middle Ages, as Thomas von Cantimpré ( Epist. 46, Migne PL 190, 506D) and John of Salisbury ( Polycraticus 7,9) prove.

A more neutral view of the Proteus' ability to change can be found in Claudian . In his Kleinepos De raptu Proserpinae (Rape of Proserpina) 3,13 Proteus is ordered by Jupiter to appear at a heavenly assembly of gods, combined with the expectation that he will keep his form.

The advancing Christian myth allegories also offered possibilities for expressly positive reference to the Proteus figure. This is how Theodulf von Orléans , one of Charlemagne's advisors , interpreted in his poem De libris, quos legere solebam, et qualiter fabulae poetarum a philosophis mystice pertractentur (poem about the books I usually read and like the myths of the poets about the Philosophers should be interpreted mystically; Carm. 45 MGH Poet. Lat. Aevi Carolini 1, 543f.) Hercules z. B. as an image of virtue, Proteus because of his gifted vision even as an image of truth (v.23f .: Sic Proteus verum… repingit, / virtutem Alcides ).

In the Carmina Burana the negative connotations of the Proteus figure predominate. As an antitype to Christ, Proteus figures in the anonymous CB 15,5,1, written in the 2nd half of the 12th century: “Carelessness is changeable like the unsympathetic Proteus of pagan mythology; the constant resembles Christ who says of himself: 'I am Alpha and Omega' ”. CB 130,6,11 (= 131a, 3,11), which was probably written by Philip the Chancellor around 1198 , attributes to Proteus a thousandfold changes in form ( variat mille colores ). The kingdom of Proteus ( ubi Proteus regnat ), that is egoism and the mendacious, unreliable friendliness at a secular court, this is how CB 187,1,11, located around 1200 in the Anglo-Saxon area, denounces. The criticism of the Roman curia, written before 1200 and certainly by Philip the Chancellor , equates the curials with "Proteus figures keeping promises" ( in promissis Protei ) (CB 189,3b, 9).

Reception in renaissance and modern times

Examples of the history of the reception of the Proteus figure in the literature of the Renaissance and modern times are extremely numerous and varied due to the intensive re-engagement with antique-pagan myths.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola elevates Proteus in his Oratio de dignitate hominis (speech on the dignity of man; final version 1486) to one of his icons for his anthropology, according to which man should not correspond to an external Platonic idea, but - like that Church writer Origen carried out - freely drafting himself on the basis of his will.

Michael Marullus humorously alludes to the almost unlimited versatility of Proteus, which, however, will never be sufficient for a man seeking love to be able to meet the wishes of a woman ( Epigr. 2,14,7; cf. Epigr. 2,3,4; Hymn . nat. 3,2,45, as ruler of the floods: hymn. nat. 4,4,69f.)

The Proteus figure experienced another breakthrough in popularity through Jacopo Sannazaro's poems, which were read across Europe . In the course of Sannazaro's literary work, Proteus developed into a certain favorite figure, with Sannazaro dropping the morally questionable features of Proteus and placing the truthfulness and reliability of his prophecies in the foreground. In Rime I, 11 he appears as a prophet. In the Arcadia (6 ecl., 52-54) Proteus figured as a master of multiple animal transformations. In Sannazaro's fishing lodges ( eclogae piscatoriae ), which had an innovative effect on European shepherd poetry, Proteus was given the role of comforter to his mother, the sea goddess Thetis , who, like him, mourned the loss of Achilles ( Piscat. 1, 87-90). He also takes on the role of a helpful messenger for the sea nymph Hyala on Ischia ( Piscat. 3,62-65). In the fourth fisherman's lodge ( ecloga piscatoria ), entitled “ Proteus ” , which is based heavily on Virgil's Eclogue 6, two fishermen who have returned from Capri to Naples listen to the singing of the sea god, surrounded by frolicking dolphins and tritons. In it he explains the legendary historical origin of the main towns around the Gulf of Naples (in particular Baiae , Cumae , Naples , Pompei ). Sannazaro lets Proteus appear even more spectacularly in his main work De partu Virginis (On the Birth of the Virgin). In a speech by the river god Jordan (ibid. 3, 331-504), he reports on the prophecy of Proteus (ibid. 3, 338-485), in which the disappearance of diseases in messianic times, the birth of the Lord and his later miracles to be announced. In a detailed method-reflexive-poetological letter to Antonio Seripando dated April 13, 1521, Sannazaro explains reasons for his use of the Proteus figure: "to direct the poetic fiction and to adorn the sacred with the profane" ( temperare la fictione poetica et ornare le cose sacre con le profane ; ed. Fantazzi / Perrosa 93,2-3). However, in his Sannazaro criticism , Erasmus of Rotterdam expressly rejects this Proteus adaptation: non apte Proteum inducit de Christo vaticinantem (inappropriately he introduces Proteus, who prophesies about Christ)

The re-evaluation of the Proteus figure in the High Renaissance, reinforced by Sannazaro, is now reflected in a variety of motifs in various cultural branches. Andreas Alciatus ' book Emblematum liber (1531) attests to the reception of Proteus in the emblematic . Jacob Cats titled his collection of emblems " Silenus Alcibiadis, sive Proteus " (1618).

Based on the mythological handbooks of antiquity, the Renaissance and the Baroque, Benjamin Hederich's “ Thorough Mythological Lexicon ”, which was used by Goethe and Schiller in 1724, compiled the widely diverging ancient mythographic reports on Proteus in great detail. The entry in Zedler's Universal Lexikon (vol. 29 (1741), col. 969f.) Only writes out the Hederich article. In 1834 Christian Friedrich Hebbel dedicates a poem with 9 verses to Proteus under this title (Hebbel's Works, Part One, Poems, page 107, edited by Theodor Poppe, German publishing house Bong & Co.)

The survival of the Proteus figure in modern art and literature, also in alchemy, is difficult to overlook and still needs many individual evaluations, especially since the reception documents are increasingly differentiated in national languages.

Dramaturgical representations are stage pieces with different orientations, such as the Schwank “Proteus the Sea God, a Fürbild der Truth” (1557) by Hans Sachs , the satire “Les Amours de Protée” (1729) by A.-R. Lesage. Proteus plays a decisive role in the fate of the homunculus at the end of the second act (from verse 8225) of Goethe's " Faust II " (1832). Proteus is also mentioned in an early version of Georg Büchner's dramatic fragment Woyzeck (combined work version, Poschmann, scene 11). In addition there are the pieces “Proteus” (1864) by O. Marbach, “Protée” (1927; music by D. Milhaud) by Paul Claudel and “Idothea” (1941) by H. Leip.

Proteus as protagonist in musical works is featured in GB Buononcini's opera “Proteo sul reno” (1703; text by PA Bernadoni) and in the opera “As variedades de Proteo” (1737) by AJ da Silva. The composer Thomas Müller created the work Proteus (WP 1985, Leipziger Consort ) and a second version (WP 2000, Ensemble Sortisatio ).

Epic poetry of modern times takes up the sea god in "Proteus" (1888) by St. Brooke. The Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges dedicates a sonnet to his collection of poems "La rosa profunda" (1975) Proteus.

In the literature of the German-speaking area, Proteus gains monographic rank with Erasmus Finx , Der infernal Proteus (1695; see fig.), As well as in Wilhelm Raabe's story “Vom alten Proteus”. In Uwe Timm's novel Johannisnacht there is a motivic reference to Proteus; the eighth chapter reads: Proteus rises from the sea . James Joyce named the third chapter of his novel "Ulysses" after the Greek deity.

See also

literature

  • Hans Herter : Proteus. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XXIII, 1, Stuttgart 1957, Col. 973 f.
  • Hans Herter: Proteus. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 4, Stuttgart 1972, column 1196 f.
  • B. Thaon: Spenser ’s Neptune, Nereus and Proteus: Renaissance Mythography Made Verse. In: RJ Schoeck (Ed.): Acta conventus Neo-Latini Bononiensis, Proceedings of the 4th International Congress of Neo-Latin Studies, Bologna 1979 (Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies 37). Binghamton, New York 1985, pp. 630-635.
  • S. West, in: Alfred Heubeck et al .: A Commentary on Homer's Odyssey, vol. I. Oxford: UP 1988, pp. 217f.
  • Annemarie Ambühl: Proteus . In: DNP 10 (2001), Sp. 460f.
  • Anne Rolet (Ed.): Protée en trompe-l'œil. Genèse et survivances d'un mythe, d'Homère à Bouchardon . Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes 2009.
  • A. Scuderi: Il paradosso di Proteo. Storia di una rappresentazione culturale da Omero al postumano (Carocci, Collana Lingue e letterature n.147). Rome 2012. ISBN 978-88-430-6719-0 .

Web links

Commons : Proteus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Noëlle Icard-Gianolio: Proteus. In: Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae . Volume 7/1, 1994, pp. 560b-561b; see. Hans Herter : Proteus. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XXIII, 1, Stuttgart 1957, Col. 973 f .; O. Navarre: Proteus. In: Charles Victor Daremberg , Edmond Saglio (ed.): Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines . Volume 4/1. Hachette, Paris 1907, Col. 713b-714a ( online ).
  2. ↑ Herter, RE 23/1 (1957), col. 975,12 following Navarre, s. o. 4/1 (1907), col. 174a.
  3. ↑ Cf. Martin Persson Nilsson : History of the Greek Religion (= Handbook of Classical Studies. 5th section, 2nd part, 1st volume). CH Beck, Munich 1941, Vol. I³, 1967, pp. 240-244.
  4. ↑ Proteus is the oldest evidence in Greek mythology for a helpful divine epiphany and prophecy at noon; on the divinatory favor of midday and on the motif of outwitting an otherworldly in Proteus cf. Wolfgang Speyer : Noon and midnight as sacred times in antiquity and Christianity . In: Vivarium. Festschrift for Theodor Klauser on his 90th birthday (Yearbook for Antiquity and Christianity, Erg.-Vd. 11). Münster: Aschendorff 1984, p. (314-326) 318 (lit.!) = Wolfgang Speyer: Early Christianity in the ancient radiation field (Scientific studies on the New Testament 50). Tübingen: Mohr 189, pp. (340-352) 344.
  5. ↑ Cf. Georg Pfligersdorffer : Studies on Poseidonios . Vienna 1959, p. 120ff.
  6. ↑ Luciani Opera , ed. Crit. MD MacLeod ( OCT ), Vol. 4, Oxford 1987, 237f .; German translator: Lukian: Works in three volumes . Edited by Jürgen Werner / Herbert Greiner-Mai (Library of Antiquity). Berlin / Weimar: Structure 1981, Vol. 1, 326f.
  7. ↑ Cf. Francesca Della Corte: Proteo . In: Enciclopedia Virgiliana 4 (1988), pp. 327b-328b.
  8. ↑ Scholia Bernensia in Vergilii Georgica 4,406, p. 995 Hagen; see. Sidonius Apollinaris , carm. 7.27f.
  9. ↑ See the evidence based on A. Otto, Die Sprichwort der Römer . Leipzig 1890, Nachdr. Hildesheim 1965, p. 289, No. 1478, to this the additions according to Reinhard Häussler (Ed.): Supplements to A. Otto, Sprichwort ... Hildesheim 1968, p. 318 z. St.
  10. ↑ Cf. Ekkehard Stark : Hobbies of Silius Italicus: The Grotto of Proteus on Capri . In: Antike & Abendland 39 (1993), pp. 132-143.
  11. ↑ Cf. Gregor von Nazianz, Oratio 4.62 Migne PG 35, 585A; see. Cassiodor , Variae 5.34; see also Ovid, Amores 3, 12, 35.
  12. ↑ Benedikt Konrad Vollmann [Come. z. St.]. In the S. (Ed.): Carmina Burana. Texts and translations . Frankfurt a. M. 1987, p. 940.
  13. ↑ Cf. Theo Kobusch: The philosophical meaning of the church father Origen. On the Christian criticism of the one-sidedness of the Greek essential philosophy . In: Theologische Viertelschrift 165 (1985), pp. (94-105) 105.
  14. ↑ Giovanni Pico della Morandola: Oratio de dignitate hominis / On human dignity . Lat. - German. On the basis of the text of the Editio princeps ed. and over. by Gerd von der Gönna. Stuttgart: Reclam 1997, pp. 10/11; to Edgar Wind : Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance (STW 697). (London 1958, ²1968) Frankfurt a. M .: Suhrkamp 1981, pp. 220-249, esp. 220.
  15. ↑ See Michael Marullus: Poems. Translated by Charles Fantazzi (I Tatti Library 54). Cambridge, Ma. / London: Harvard UP 2012.
  16. ↑ See: Bernhard Coppel: The Gulf of Naples: Proteus' night song at the Punta della Campanella (Ecl. 4). In: Eckart Schäfer (Ed.): Sannazaro and the Augustan poetry (NeoLatina 10). Tübingen: Narr 2006, pp. 87-100.
  17. ↑ J. Sannazaro: Epist. ad Ant. Seripandum (April 13, 1521). In: Jacopo Sannazaro: De partu Virginis. Ed. Charles Fantazzi / Alessandro Perosa. Florence: Olschki 1988, pp. 91–94, here 92f.
  18. ↑ See David Quint: Origin and Originality in Renaissance Literature. Versions of the source. New Haven / London: Yale UP 1983, pp. 43-80. 230-235 (note); Marc Deramaix: Mendax ad caetera Proteus. Le mythe virgilien de Protéé et la théologie poétique dans l'oeuvre de Sannazar. In: Secchi-Tarugi, L. (ed.), Il sacro nel Rinascimento. Atti del XII Convegno Internazionale del'Istituto Studi Umanistici F. Petrarca (Chianciano-Pienza, 17-20 June 2000). Florence: Franco Cesati Editore 2002, pp. 85-107; ders .: Proteus uaticinans. Poétique et théologie de Protée dans l'œuvre de Sannazar (1457–1530) lecteur de Virgile. In: Anne Rolet (ed.): Protée en trompe-l'œil. Genèse et survivances d'un mythe, d'Homère à Bouchardon. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes 2009, pp. 383–402.
  19. ↑ Erasmus of Rotterdam: Dialogus cui titulus Ciceronianus sive De optimo dicendi genere - The Ciceronian or The best style. Translated, introduced and annotated by Theresia Payr (Ed.). In: Ders .: Selected Writings. Edition in eight volumes in Latin and German, ed. by Werner Welzig , Vol. 7, Darmstadt 1972, pp. (1-355) 318/319.
  20. ↑ See Arthur Henkel / Albrecht Schöne (eds.): Emblemata. Handbook on the symbolic art of the XVI. and XVII. Century. Stuttgart / Weimar: Metzler 1967, Sp. 1794f.
  21. ↑ Benjamin Hederich : " Thorough Mythological Lexicon ". (1724) Leipzig edition 1770, ed. by Johann Joachim Schwabe, Leipzig: Gleditsch 1770 (Nachdr. Darmstadt: WBG 1996), Sp. 2107-2111.