Calchas
Sign in to saveCalchas (; ) is an Argive mantis, or seer, in Greek mythology. Calchas appears in the opening scenes of the Iliad, and also has a long literary history after Homer.
Key facts
- Character.name
- Calchas ThestoridesΚάλχας Θεστορίδης
- Character.series
- Trojan War
- Character.image
- Fresco Iphigeneia MAN Naples.jpg
- Character.image_upright
- 1
- Character.alt
- A peristyle fresco from Pompeii showing Calchas presiding over the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter, Iphigeneia, as the divine price for winds to carry the fleet to Troy.
- Character.caption
- Calchas presides at the sacrifice of Iphigeneia, the daughter of Agamemnon, as the divine price of the winds required to carry the fleet to Troy, in a peristyle fresco from Pompeii.
- Character.first_major
- Epic poetry
- Character.first_minor
- Iliad
- Character.last_minor
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- Character.last_issue
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- Character.creator
- Homer and his school
- Character.based_on
- Character from a traditional story of the Trojan War
- Character.adapted_by
- Greek oral poets presenting the story in poetry contests at festivals
- Character.nickname
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- Character.nicknames
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- Character.alias
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- Character.aliases
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- Character.species
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via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Image
- Le Sacrifice d'Iphigénie.jpg
Show 2 more facts
- Commons category
- Calchas
- name in native language
- Κάλχας
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~5 min read
Article
7 sectionsContents
- Description
- Family
- Career
- ''Iliad''
- ''Posthomerica''
- Death
- References
Calchas (; ) is an Argive mantis, or seer, in Greek mythology. Calchas appears in the opening scenes of the Iliad, and also has a long literary history after Homer.
A seer in the service of the Greek forces, Calchas is portrayed as a skilled augur, Greek oinópolos ('bird-savant'): "as an augur, Calchas had no rival in the camp." He had received knowledge of the past, present, and future from the god, Apollo. He had other mantic skills as well: interpreting the entrails of the enemy during the tide of battle. His mantosune, as it is called in the Iliad, is the hereditary occupation of his family, which accounts for the most credible etymology of his name: “the dark one” in the sense of “ponderer,” based on the resemblance of pondering to melancholy, or being “blue.”