Nereus

The 'Old Man of the Sea,' eldest son of Pontus (Sea) and Gaia (Earth) — truthful and gentle, who never forgets what is right and gives just and kindly counsel (Hes. *Theog.* 233–236). By the Oceanid Doris he fathered the fifty Nereids, the sea-nymphs (Hes. *Theog.* 240–264). Like other sea-elders he is a shape-shifter and a knower of hidden things: when Heracles sought the way to the apples of the Hesperides, he seized the sleeping Nereus and held him fast through every transformation until the god revealed the path (Apollod. *Bibl.* 2.5.11).