4.435–480

Homer does not comment on the nymph’s motives, so we must assume that they were not important to the story. The goal was to get the trick underway, it seems. A further parallel to the Calypso episode surfaces here. The sea nymph Leukothea comes along to save Odysseus after the boat he is using to leave Calypso capsizes:

κάμμορε, τίπτε τοι ὧδε Ποσειδάων ἐνοσίχθων
ὠδύσατ᾽ ἐκπάγλως, ὅτι τοι κακὰ πολλὰ φυτεύει;
οὐ μὲν δή σε καταφθίσει μάλα περ μενεαίνων.

Poor man, why does Poseidon the Earthshaker 
hate you so terribly that he plants all these evils for you? 
But he will not destroy you, angry though he might be.

Odyssey 5.339–41

Again, a nymph appears to help the hero escape from detention. Like Eidothea, she has no obvious motive for intervening. Both nymphs fall into the category of “divine helper,” a role also played by Calypso (5.276), Nausicaa (6.255), and Athena (7.28; 13.330), but the links between Eidothea and Leukothea are the strongest, and their implications for the portrait of Odysseus will become yet more clear as the Proteus episode progresses.

We can identify another important parallel for Menelaus’s encounter with Proteus in the exchange they have once the Greek sailors have confined the shape shifter:

ἀλλὰ σύ πέρ μοι εἰπέ, θεοὶ δέ τε ἴσασιν, 
ὅς τίς μ᾽ ἀθανάτων πεδάᾳ ἔδησε κελεύθου,
νόστον θ᾽, ὡς ἐπὶ πόντον ἐλεύσομαι ἰχθυόεντα.

But you at least tell me, since gods know everything, 
what god is holding me back and keeping me from my journey, 
and tell me how I will make my way home over the fishy sea.

Odyssey 4.468–70

Advising Odysseus to travel to the underworld to consult the prophet Tiresias, Circe says:

ἔνθα τοι αὐτίκα μάντις ἐλεύσεται, ὄρχαμε λαῶν,
ὅς κέν τοι εἴπῃσιν ὁδὸν καὶ μέτρα κελεύθου
νόστον θ᾽, ὡς ἐπὶ πόντον ἐλεύσεαι ἰχθυόεντα.

Then the prophet will come right away, leader of the host, 
who will tell you the way to go, the stages of the journey, 
and how you will make your way back home over the fishy sea.

Odyssey 10. 538–40

The verbal echoes underscore other similarities. As we will soon hear, Proteus would not be the one to deliver the news Menelaus was seeking. Instead, the king would have to return to the Aegyptus River to make sacrifices to the gods before they would tell him how to return home. Likewise, Circe delivers disappointing news to Odysseus, that she will not give him directions for his journey home. In order to learn how to get back to Ithaka, he will first have to travel to the underworld to consult with the prophet Tiresias, who will tell him the way. Menelaus reports that he was undone by Eidothea’s news:

ὣς ἔφατ᾽, αὐτὰρ ἐμοί γε κατεκλάσθη φίλον ἦτορ,
οὕνεκά μ᾽ αὖτις ἄνωγεν ἐπ᾽ ἠεροειδέα πόντον
Αἴγυπτόνδ᾽ ἰέναι, δολιχὴν ὁδὸν ἀργαλέην τε.

So she spoke, but my heart was broken,  
because she ordered me to go back on the misty sea 
to the Aegyptus River, a long and harsh journey.

Odyssey 4.481-83

When Odysseus reports Circe’s advice to his crew, their response is similar, but with one important difference:

ὣς ἐφάμην, τοῖσιν δὲ κατεκλάσθη φίλον ἦτορ,
ἑζόμενοι δὲ κατ᾽ αὖθι γόων τίλλοντό τε χαίτας:
ἀλλ᾽ οὐ γάρ τις πρῆξις ἐγίγνετο μυρομένοισιν.

So I spoke, and their hearts were broken, 
as they down, howling and tearing out their hair. 
But there was no remedy for their suffering.

Odyssey 10.566–68

Menelaus was crushed, but Odysseus, famous for his self-control, was not, only his crew. 

The Tiresias paradigm will continue to develop throughout the Proteus episode. Meanwhile, Menelaus pressed the prophet for news about other Greeks traveling home from Troy. The poet has Proteus build suspense in his report, working toward a dramatic finish. There were three leaders who died before reaching home. First was Ajax, son of Oileus, not to be confused with Ajax, son of Telamon, the invincible warrior who committed suicide at Troy when he lost a contest to Odysseus over who would inherit the arms of Achilles. Like Menelaus, this Ajax is good but not the best, known mostly for his foot speed; like Telamon’s son, he lost a contest to Odysseus, in a footrace at the funeral games for Patroclus (Il. 23.740–96). In Proteus’s story, he exemplifies another trait, arrogance, boasting after a narrow escape at sea that he survived despite the gods’ will.

Next comes yet another—and lengthier—report on the disastrous homecoming of Agamemnon. Arrogance in defiance of the gods resurfaces here. Menelaus collapsed in tears over the news about his brother, but Proteus reassured him that vengeance was at hand for Aegisthus, either from Menelaus or Orestes, depending on who got there first. As usual, Menelaus comes in second, but the arrogant refusal to listen to the gods’ will that Zeus complains about in the first divine assembly (1.32–47) brought the adulterous murderer down.

Further Reading

Olson, S. D. 1990. “The Stories of Agamemnon in Homer’s Odyssey. Transactions of the American Philological Association 120: 57–72.