"Eidothea, now,
had slipped beneath the sea’s engulfing folds
but back from the waves she came with four sealskins,
all freshly stripped, to deceive her father blind.
She scooped out lurking-places deep in the sand
and sat there waiting as we approached her post,
then couching us side-by-side she flung a sealskin
over each man’s back. Now there was an ambush
that would have overpowered us all – overpowering,
true, the awful reek of all those sea-fed brutes!"
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 4, lines 487-497. Menelaus tells Telemachus how he and his men were trapped in Egypt and were helped by sea goddess Eidothea, daughter of the sea god Proteus. Proteus had information on how they could get home and they were advised by Eidothea to disguise themselves as seals to ambush him.