calchas

Updated: May 5, 2025

He, having spoke, sat down; and arose Thestorian Calchas, Prophet supreme among all, in the secrets of augury foremost; He that to Ilion's borders conducted the ships of Achaia, Such was the lore of the Seer by the blessing of Phoebus Apollo.

Various - Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 367, May 1846

So Agamemnon went to Calchas, the seer, and asked his advice, whereupon the old prophet told him to send for his lovely young daughter, Iphigeneia, and offer her up on the altar as the only acceptable sacrifice to Artemis.

Homer - Odysseus, the Hero of Ithaca: Adapted from the Third Book of the Primary Schools of Athens, Greece

At last Agamemnon sent for Calchas, the soothsayer, and asked him in secret how the anger of the huntress queen might be appeased. And the soothsayer with tears and lamentations answered that in no wise could it be done save by the sacrifice to Artemis of the king's daughter, Iphigenia.

James Baldwin - Hero Tales

But Achilles and Agamemnon covered their faces with their mantles, and stayed inside the tent. As the maiden took her place upon the altar, the king's herald stood up, and bade the warriors keep silence; and Calchas put a garland of sweet-smelling flowers about the victim's head.

James Baldwin - Hero Tales

Cressida, who is sent to her father Calchas, in the Greek camp, in a day becomes "the sluttish spoil of opportunity," and of Diomede, and the comedy praised by the preface-writer of a quarto of 1609, is a squalid tragedy reeking of Thersites and Pandarus, of a light o' love, and the base victory of cruel cowardice over knightly Hector.

Andrew Lang - Shakespeare, Bacon, and the Great Unknown

Now, therefore, hearken to this, for what I am about to tell thee three men only know, namely, Calchas the soothsayer, and Menelaüs, and Ulysses, king of Ithaca.

- Myths and Legends of All Nations: Famous Stories from the Greek, German, English, Spanish,: Scandinavian, Danish, French, Russian, Bohemian, Italian: and other sources

Then she departed, that she might fetch the tablet from her dwelling, bidding the attendants keep the young men fast, but without bonds. But when she was gone, Orestes said to Pylades, "Pylades, what thinkest thou? Who is this maiden? She had great knowledge of things in Troy and Argos, and of Calchas the wise soothsayer, and of Achilles and the rest. And she made lamentation over King Agamemnon.

- Myths and Legends of All Nations: Famous Stories from the Greek, German, English, Spanish,: Scandinavian, Danish, French, Russian, Bohemian, Italian: and other sources

But above all Mnemosyne, and her daughter Polyhymnia, must be propitiated by an art that would remember all things. Like Calchas in Homer, the pantomime must know all 'that is, that was, that shall be'; nothing must escape his ever ready memory.

of Samosata Lucian - Works of Lucian of Samosata — Volume 02

Therefore may Apollo help us, who is the healer of all evils, So spake Calchas, the soothsayer, knowing indeed that Queen Artemis was wroth with King Agamemnon, for that he had hunted and slain, even in her own grove, a beautiful hart which she loved." Then said another of the elders, "Nor indeed did the wrath of the goddess tarry.

Alfred John Church - Stories from the Greek Tragedians

And next, when this trouble came upon the army, and thou wast sore afraid lest thou shouldst lose thy office and so miss renown, didst thou not hearken to Calchas the soothsayer, and promise thy daughter for sacrifice, and send for her to the camp, making pretence of giving her in marriage to Achilles? And now thou art gone back from thy word.

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