Daughter of mighty Proteus, the Old Man of the Sea in Egypt — she pitied Menelaus when hunger wasted his men and taught him how to seize her shapeshifting father and wring true prophecy from him.1
Homer names her the daughter of immortal Proteus of Egypt, servant of Poseidon, who knows every depth of the sea. When Menelaus wandered alone on the island while his comrades fished, Eidothea met him and, because her heart was moved above all others, told him the rite: at mid-heaven Proteus comes from the brine, sleeps among the seals, and must be seized and held through every form he takes until he speaks without swerving.2
Through her counsel Menelaus bound the Old Man and learned that Odysseus still lived on Calypso's isle — the first sure news that would reach Telemachus when the prince came to Menelaus' hall in Sparta.3
Homer and Hyginus attest only that she is the daughter of Proteus the Old Man of the Sea, with no nymph sub-class in our seven lenses. She is not a Nereid — Nereids are daughters of Nereus and Doris — and Hyginus' separate Oceanid Idothea who nursed Zeus is a homonym, not this Proteus-born guide. `kinds` therefore remain empty until a sourced FigureKind tag lands in the corpus.4
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story
