Abstract
The image of the mythological shape-changing sea-god Proteus was used in several contexts relating to natural philosophy in early modern Britain. These uses derived from different ancient sources, including Homer, Plato, and Diodorus Siculus. Proteus's use as an image of nature itself, most common among writers on alchemy and natural philosophy, disproves the common idea that images of nature were always female. Coercive relations between the natural philosopher and nature were not dependent on gendering nature as female, but were also expressed through the metaphor of the binding of Proteus. Proteus was treated by mythographers as representing the investigator of nature, and by antioccultists as an image of the magician making false claims to natural knowledge. The use of the image of Proteus in relation to natural philosophy declined in the late seventeenth century with the rise of mechanical philosophy.
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