Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Proetus.
The gallery
Melampus healing the daughters of Proetus
Unknown (Lucanian red-figure vase-painter), c. 360 BC
A Lucanian red-figure nestoris in Naples stages Melampus curing the Proetids — the maddened daughters of King Proetus of Tiryns. The vase is the chief ancient image of the household crisis that cost Proetus a third of Argos to the seer and his brother Bias.
Bellerophon and Stheneboea (Antakya Four Seasons mosaic)
Unknown (Roman mosaic), Roman Imperial
The Antakya Four Seasons mosaic shows Bellerophon with Stheneboea (Anteia) — Proetus' queen, whose false accusation sends the hero to Lycia with the sealed letter. Proetus' court is the hinge of the Bellerophon cycle even when the king himself stays off-panel.
In play
Bellerophon
Iliad 6 and later mythographers make Proetus the Tirynthian host who, deceived by Stheneboea, packs Bellerophon off to Iobates with a death-letter — the king as reluctant would-be murderer.
Tiryns
Proetus fortifies Tiryns with Cyclopean walls after sharing Argos with Acrisius — the king whose city still stands as the stone twin of Mycenae.
Proetus
Twin of Acrisius, king of Tiryns, father of the Proetids, host of Bellerophon — the Argive ruler whose household drives two of Greece's great cycles.