Herodotus specifically mentions that Proteus came from Memphis, implying that his predecessors did not. As a result, it is generally thought that he was a pharaoh of a new dynasty, possible the twentieth dynasty. Homer confirms that the pharaoh at the time of the Trojan war was Polybus, whom Herodotus clearly considered to be Proteus. He alleges that Helen and Alexander (Paris) are on the run from Menelaus and they are forced to harbour in Egypt due to a storm. The pharaoh decides that he cannot condemn a traveller driven to his shores by the weather, and so he agrees not to hand Alexander over to Menelaus.
However, he does not condone Alexander´s shameful behaviour, and so he decrees that Helen (and her treasure) must stay in Egypt until her husband came to collect her. He further alleges that Menelaus and his pals were unaware of this and they descended on Ilion (Troy) to demand the return of Helen and the treasure. When the Trojan´s claimed they had neither, they launched their attack. He reasons that had Helen been in Troy, she would have been handed over, and alleges that Proteus built a temple to "the foreign Aphrodite" within his enclosure proving that she lived there for a time.
