hospitality, and how, in some cases at least, virtue speedily brings
its own reward. If the story is based upon any actual facts, the
history of its origin is entirely unknown. Huet, the theologian,
indeed, supposes that it is founded on the history of the reception
of the Angels by Abraham. This is a bold surmise, but entirely in
accordance with his position, that the greatest part of the fictions
of the heathen mythology were mere glosses or perversions of the
histories of the Old Testament. If derived from Scripture, the story
is just as likely to be founded on the hospitable reception of the
Prophet Elijah by the woman of Zarephath; and the miraculous
increase of the wine in the goblet, calls to mind 'the barrel of
meal that wasted not, and the cruse of oil that did not fail.' The
story of the wretched fate of the inhospitable neighbours of Baucis
and Philemon is thought, by some modern writers, to be founded upon
the Scriptural account of the destruction of the wicked cities of
the plain.

Ancient writers have made many attempts to solve the wondrous story
of Proteus. Some say that he was an elegant orator, who charmed his
auditors by the force of his eloquence. Lucian says that he was an
actor of pantomime, so supple that he could assume various postures.
Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and Clement of Alexandria, assert that
he was an ancient king of Egypt, successor to Pheron, and that he
lived at the time, of the Trojan war. Herodotus, who represents him
as a prince of great wisdom and justice, does not make any allusion
to his powers of transformation, which was his great merit in the
eyes of the poets. Diodorus Siculus says that his alleged changes
may have had their rise in a custom which Proteus had of adorning
his helmet, sometimes with the skin of a panther, sometimes with
that of a lion, and sometimes with that of a serpent, or of some
other animal. When Lycophron states that Neptune saved Proteus from
the fury of his children, by making him go through caverns from
Pallene to Egypt, he follows the tradition which says that he
originally came from that town in Thessaly, and that he retired
thence to Egypt. Virgil, and Servius, his Commentator, assert that
Proteus returned to Thessaly after the death of his children, who
were slain by Hercules; in which assertion, however, they are not
supported by Homer or Herodotus.

FABLE VII. [VI