Proteus, in the Greek mythology a divinity of the sea endowed with the gift of prophecy, but from whom it was difficult to extort the secrets of fate, as he immediately changed his shape when any one attempted to force him, for it was only in his proper form he could enunciate these secrets.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Protestants * Protogenes