Greek sea gods conform to a single type: that of Homer's "halios geron" or Old Man of the Sea: Nereus, Proteus, Glaucus and Phorkys. These sea gods are not as powerful as Poseidon, the main god of the oceans and seas. Each one is a shape-shifter, a prophet, and the father of either radiantly beautiful nymphs or hideous monsters (or both, in the case of Phorkys). Nymphs and monsters blur, for Hesiod relates that Phorcys was wed to the "beautiful-cheeked" Ceto, whose name is merely the feminine of the monstrous Cetus, to whom Andromeda was due to be sacrificed. Each appearance in myth
The Man Who Lost the Sea head ...", "If you were the kid ..."). Shortly after its original appearance in "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction", "The Man Who Lost the Sea" appeared in issue 74 (January 1960) of the French-language magazine "Fiction" (under the title "L'homme qui a perdu la mer"). Its first appearance in Britain was in the October 1963 issue of "Venture Science Fiction". "The Man Who Lost the Sea" appeared in two best-of-the-year anthologies—"The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction" (Ninth Series, 1960) and "The Best American Short Stories, 1960", as well as being reprinted in "The Fifth Annual of the