Calchas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Greek mythology, Kalchas Thestórides ("son of Thestor") or Calchas ("brazen") for short, a loyal Argive, was a powerful seer, a gift of Apollo: "as an augur, Calchas had no rival in the camp" (Iliad i, E.V. Rieu translation) Calchas prophesized that in order to loose a favourable wind to deploy the Greek ships mustered in Aulis on their way to Troy, Agamemnon would need to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigeneia, to appease Artemis, whom Agamemnon had offended (told in the Cyclic "Cypria") . In the Iliad, Calchas tells the Greeks that Chryseis was to return to her father Chryses in order to get Apollo to stop the plague he sent as a punishment: this triggered the quarrel of Achilles and Agamemnon, the main theme of the "Iliad". Calchas died of shame at Colophon in Asia Minor shortly after the Trojan War (told in the Cyclic "Nosti" and "Melampodia"): the prophet Mopsus beat him in a contest of soothsaying, although it is also said that Calchas died of laughter when the day that was to be his death day arrived and the prediction didn't seem to materialize.
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: |
