This 1714 marble sculpture depicts Aristaeus binding Proteus to a boulder. Aristaeus wears a laurel but both figures are naked but for strategically placed flowing cloths. Two strange looking animals (dogs?, seals?, monkeys? lions?) are set at the feet of the figures.
The artist is Sebastien Slodtz.
The title of the piece uses the French names of its subjects: "Protee et Aristee".
Wikipedia's article on Proteus (
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"According to Virgil in the fourth Georgic, at one time the bees of Aristaeus, son of Apollo, all died of a disease. Aristaeus went to his mother, Cyrene, for help; she told him that Proteus could tell him how to prevent another such disaster, but would do so only if compelled. Aristaeus had to seize Proteus and hold him, no matter what he would change into. Aristeus did so, and Proteus eventually gave up and told him to sacrifice 12 animals to the gods, leave the corpses in the place of sacrifice, and return three days later. When Aristaeus returned after the three days he found in one of the carcasses a swarm of bees, which he took to his apiary. The bees were never again troubled by disease."
As for Neptune's moon, Wikipedia (
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"... also known as Neptune VIII, is the second largest Neptunian moon, and Neptune's largest inner satellite. Discovered by Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1989, it is named after Proteus, the shape-changing sea god of Greek mythology. Proteus circles Neptune in a nearly equatorial orbit at the distance of about 4.75 equatorial radii of the planet.
Despite being more than 400 km in diameter Proteus has a somewhat irregular shape with several slightly concave facets and relief as high as 20 km. Its surface is dark, neutral in color and heavily cratered. The largest crater is more than 200 km in diameter. There are also a number of scarps, grooves and valleys related to large craters.
Proteus is probably not an original body that formed with Neptune; it may have accreted later from the debris created when the largest Neptunian satellite Triton was captured."