Calchas
| Calchas Thestorides Κάλχας Θεστορίδης | |
|---|---|
| Trojan War character | |
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. | |
| First appearance |
|
| Created by | Homer and his school |
| Based on | Character from a traditional story of the Trojan War |
| Adapted by | Greek oral poets presenting the story in poetry contests at festivals |
| In-universe information | |
| Title | Guide |
| Occupation | Seer, Greek Mantis, in the sense of one who knows the divine will. |
| Affiliation | Achaean army |
| Origin | Argos in the Peloponnesus |
| Nationality | Achaean |
Calchas (/ˈkælkəs/; Ancient Greek: Κάλχας, Kalkhas) 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.”