Under this
character both the sons of Chus, and the Anakim of Canaan are included.
Lycophron takes off from Proteus the imputation of being accessary to the
vile practices, for which the place was notorious; and makes only his sons
guilty of murdering strangers. He says, that their father left them out of
disgust,

[620][Greek: Teknon aluxas tas xenoktonas palas.]

In this he alludes to a custom, of which I shall take notice hereafter.
According to Eustathius, the notion was, that Proteus fled by a
subterraneous passage to Egypt, in company with his daughter Eidothea.
[621][Greek: Apokateste eis Pharon meta tes thugatros Eidotheas.] He went,
it seems, from one Pharos to another; from Pallene to the mouth of the
Nile. The Pharos of Egypt was both a watch-tower, and a temple, where
people went to inquire about the success of their voyage; and to obtain the
assistance of pilots. Proteus was an Egyptian title of the Deity, under
which he was worshipped, both in the Pharos, and at [622]Memphis. He was
the same as Osiris, and Canobus: and particularly the God of mariners, who
confined his department to the [623]sea. From hence, I think, we may
unravel the mystery about the pilot of Menelaus, who is said to have been
named Canobus, and to have given name to the principal seaport in Egypt.
The priests of the country laughed at the idle [624]story; and they had
good reason: for the place was far prior to the people spoken of, and the
name not of Grecian original. It is observable, that Stephanus of Byzantium
gives the pilot another name, calling him, instead of Canobus, [Greek:
Pharos], Pharus. His words are [Greek: Pharos ho Proreus Menalaou], which
are scarce sense. I make no doubt, from the history of Proteus above, but
that in the original, whence Stephanus copied, or at least whence the story
was first taken, the reading was [Greek: Pharos ho Proteus Menelaou]; that
is, the Proteus of Menelaus, so celebrated by Homer, who is represented, as
so wise, and so experienced in navigation, whom they esteemed a great
prophet, and a Deity of the sea, was nothing else but a Pharos. In other
words, it was a temple of Proteus upon the Canobic branch of the Nile, to
which the Poet makes Menelaus have recourse. Such was the original history:
but [Greek: Proteus Menelaou] has been changed to [Greek: proreus]; and the
God Canobus turned into a Grecian pilot. As these were Ophite temples, a
story has been added about this person having b