Nereid of the first sea voyages
Proto
Proto is one of the Nereids of Greek mythology, the fifty sea-nymph daughters of Nereus, the Old Man of the Sea, and the Oceanid Doris. Her name means 'the first' or 'the receiver', and she is linked to the first or maiden voyage at sea.
The myth
According to the tradition, Proto was the Nereid who watched over the first crossing, the one that opened voyages at sea.
Like many of her sisters, she lived in the depths with her father Nereus and her mother Doris, in a large family of sea beings. She appears in the story through Achilles: when Thetis, his mother, cries out in grief over the death of his friend Patroclus, Proto and her sisters come to join her in lament. It is a brief role, but it shows the Nereids as a chorus that comforts the goddess in her sorrow.