Καλχας
A seer of Mycenae, or possibly Megara; he was the most gifted person of his time with the ability to read the meaning of the flight of brids and to know the past, present and future: Apollo had given him this gift of prophecy. Calchas was the son of Thestor and through him Apollo's grandson. He acted as soothsayer: at each crucial stage in the preparations for the war and during the war itself he issued a prophecy.
When Achilles was nine years old it was Calchas who announced that Troy could not possibly be taken unless the child took part in the conflict and this led Thetis to disguise her son among the daughters of the king of Scyros. At Aulis he interpreted the omen which manifested itself in the shape of the snake which ate the birds on the sacrificial altar, prophesying that the city would be captured in the tenth year of the war (see AGAMEMNON). After the ill-starred landing in Mysia, when Telephus had agreed to lead the fleet to the Troad it was Calchas who confirmed by his predictions that the instructions issued by Telephus were correct. Just as the Greek fleet was ready to leave Aulis for the second time Calchas disclosed that the calm which prevented its departure was due to the wrath of Artemis, who would only be appeased by the sacrifice of Iphigenia.
Later, after Achilles had died and Ajax, the son of Telamon, had killed himself, Calchas told the Greeks that Troy would not be taken unless someone could obtain the bow of Heracles: he was thus the instigator of the mission of Odysseus to Philoctetes. When Helenus withdrew into the forests of Mount Ida after the death of Paris, Calchas advised the Greeks to capture him, for only Helenus could tell them the conditions on which they could take the city. Finally, seeing that brute force would not succeed, Calchas suggested that the Greeks should construct a wooden horse, to enable the fighting men to enter the city by stealth; he himself was one of the warriors inside the horse.
As they set out he foretold that their return home would not be easy because of the wrath of Athena, who was displeased by the injustice suffered by her protégé Ajax, the son of Telamon, and he did not want to sail with them, since he knew that their convoy would not arrive safely in port. He accordingly embarked with another soothsayer, Amphilochus, the son of Amphiaraus and they took with them the heroes Leonteus, Podalirius and Polypoetes; their vessel was cast up on the coast of Asia Minor, at Colophon (in other versions they are said to have gone there on foot).
Now an oracle, probably spoken of by Helenus, had told Calchas that he would die on the day when he met a diviner better than himself; at Colophon, he came across the seer Mopsus. Near his house there was a fig tree. Calchas asked, 'How many figs does it bear?' and Mopsus replied, 'Ten thousand and one bushels and one fig more'; when it was checked Mopsus was found to be correct. There was also a pregnant sow, and Mopsus asked Calchas, 'How many piglets will there be in her litter and how soon will they be born?' Calchas replied that there would be eight piglets. Mposus declared that he was wrong, and that she would have not eight but nine piglets, all males, and that they would be born on the next day and at the sixth hour. This is what actually happened, and Calchas was so vexed that he died, or according to some accounts, he killed himself; he was buried at Notion, near Colophon.
Conon tells a different story about the contest of skill between the two diviners: the king of Lycia was preparing a military expedition and Mopsus advised him not to undertake it as he would be defeated. Calchas, on the other hand, told the king that he would certainly be victorious. The king set out and was defeated, and this enhanced the reputation of Mopsus but caused Calchas to commit suicide in despair.
There is also a story which tells how Calchas had planted a vine in a grove sacred to Apollo in the wood of Grynium, in Mysia. A seer who lived nearby forecast that he would never drink wine from it, but Calchas ridiculed this idea. The vine grew, bore grapes out of which wine was made, and on the day when the new wine was to be tasted Calchas invited the people who lived nearby as well as the seer who had made the prophecy. At the very moment when his cup was full and Calchas was about to drink, his rival repeated that he would never taste the wine. Calchas began to laugh so heartily that he choked to death and died before the cup had reached his lips (see ANTINOUS).
South Italian legends speak of another diviner, also called Calchas, whose tomb could be seen at Siris on the gulf of Tarentum. There was yet another Calchas who had a shrine where people used to sleep in order to learn of the future through their dreams; this shrine was in the neighborhood of Mount Garganon, on the Adriatic coast. The Calchas of Siris was reported to have been killed by a blow of Heracles' fist. These various legends are incongruent.
{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}
Table of Sources
- Hom. Il. 1, 69; 92; 2, 300ff.
- schol. on Hom. Il. 2, 135
- schol. on Apoll. Rhod. Arg. 1, 139
- schol. on Hom. Od. 13, 159
- Paus. 1, 43, 1
- Hyg. Fab. 97; 128; 190
- Apollod. Bibl. 3, 13, 18; Epit. 3, 15; 3, 21ff.; 5, 8ff.; 5, 2ff.
- Paus. 1, 43, 1; 7, 3, 7; 9, 19, 6
- Ovid, Met. 12, 11ff.
- Strabo 14, 1, 27, p. 642ff.
- Serv. on Virgil, Ecl. 6, 72; Aen. 2, 166; 3, 322
- Conon, Narr. 34; 6
- Quint. Smyrn. Posthom. 6, 61; 12, 3ff.
- Virgil, Aen. 2, 185
- Tzetzes, Posthom. 645; on Lyc. Alex. 427; 978ff.; 1047ff.