"First he shifted into a great bearded lion
and then a serpent –
a panther –
a ramping wild boar –
a torrent of water –
a tree with soaring branchtops."
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 4, lines 512-514. This is a description of the shape shifting sea god, Proteus. Menelaus was shipwrecked on the island of Pharos on the way back from the Trojan War. He relates how he had to defeat the slippery Proteus to make him give up the secrets Menelaus and his men needed to get back home to Sparta.