387'In Neptune's Carpathian flood there is a seer, sea-blue Proteus, who traverses the great sea in a chariot drawn by fishes and two-footed horses yoked together. 390He is now revisiting the harbours of Emathia and his native Pallene; him we Nymphs revere, and aged Nereus himself; 392for the seer knows all things, what is, what has been, what is soon to come; 394for so it pleased Neptune, whose monstrous herds and ugly seals he grazes beneath the flood. 396Him, my son, you must first catch in chains, so that he may unfold to you the whole cause of the disease and bring about a favourable outcome. 398For without force he will give no counsel, nor will you bend him by entreaty; 399bring stern force and chains against him once he is caught; 400only against these will his tricks break, useless.
401I myself, when the sun has kindled the midday heat, when the grass is thirsty and shade is now more welcome to the flock, will lead you into the old man's hiding-place, where he retreats, weary, from the waves, so that you may easily attack him as he lies asleep. 405But when you hold him seized in your hands and chains, then various shapes and the faces of wild beasts will mock you. For suddenly he will become a bristling boar and a fierce tiger, a scaly serpent and a lioness with tawny neck, or he will give out the sharp roar of flame and so slip from his chains, or he will slip away into thin water and be gone.
411But the more he turns himself into every shape, the more, my son, tighten the clinging chains, until, his body changed, he is such as you saw him when he closed his eyes as sleep began.'