The New Orleans krewe founded in 1882 and recognized as the oldest continuously parading Old Line Krewe is the Krewe of Proteus.
Proteus is named for the shape-shifting figure of Greek mythology and emerged during the formative era of New Orleans Carnival organizations. It is an Old Line krewe, a term generally associated with the city’s nineteenth-century parade societies and their elaborate themes, secretive memberships, tableaux, and formal balls.
Proteus is especially notable because older organizations did not maintain uninterrupted parading. The Mistick Krewe of Comus and the Knights of Momus stopped parading in 1992, leaving Proteus as the oldest continuously parading Old Line krewe. Proteus itself suspended parading after a 1991 city ordinance dispute and returned in 2000, but its historic designation reflects the continuity of the organization’s Old Line parade tradition.
It is often confused with Orpheus, Endymion, or Bacchus, which are prominent modern krewes but were founded later and belong to different Carnival eras.