2. Proteus, an attendant and, according to certain traditions, a son of Neptune. Like Nereus, he was a little old man of the sea. He possessed the prophetic gift and the power of changing his shape at will.
3. The Harpies, foul creatures, with heads of maidens, bodies, wings, and claws of birds, and faces pale with hunger. They are the offspring of Thaumas, a son of Pontus and Gæa.
4. The uncanny offspring of Phorcys and Ceto,—children of Pontus,—who rejoiced in the horrors of the sea:
a. The Grææ, three hoary witches, with one eye between them which they used in turn.
b. The Gorgons, whose glance was icy death.
c. The Sirens, muses of the sea and of death, who by their sweet singing enticed seafarers to destruction.
d. Scylla, also destructive to mariners, a six-headed monster whose lower limbs were serpents and ever-barking dogs.
Fig. 42. Triton carrying off a Nymph
5. Atlas, who stood in the far west, bearing on his shoulders the vault of heaven. He was once regarded as a divinity of the sea, but later as a mountain. He was the son of Iapetus and the father of three classes of nymphs,—the Pleiads, the Hyads, and, according to some stories, the Hesperids. The last-mentioned, assisted by their mother Hesperis and a dragon, guarded the golden apples of the tree that had sprung up to grace the wedding of Jove and Juno. The daughters of Atlas were not themselves divinities of the sea.