Proteas the seahorse was created to express the values of the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games – Strength, Pursuit, Inspiration and Celebration. Spyros Gogos, the creator of Proteas, took a deliberate step away from previous Paralympic mascot designs and created what he felt best represented the nature of the competitions and the athletes’ constant goal of achieving excellency. Named after the mythologic sea-god or god of rivers and oceanic bodies of water, Proteus. From the myth also comes their name, as a feature of Proteus comes the adjective protean, with the general meaning of "versatile", "mutable", "capable of assuming many forms". "Protean" has positive connotations of flexibility, versatility and adaptability.