Calchas

Family: Argos · Role: prophet · First appears: Aeschylus, Agamemnon — Scene 1

As the prophet-offspring of Thestor, Calchas warned Teucer in the time of Aias to keep Aias indoors for that day, lest Athena destroy him. He revealed that Aias had defied both his father Telamon and Athena, and as mentor to Aias he held forth on his choice of life or death. “To keep beneath yon covert this one day Your hero, and not suffer him to rove, If he would see him any more alive.”

In the army, Calchas served as mentor to Agamemnon and Menelaus, reading the omen of the hares and foretelling the fall of Troy while warning that divine wrath might hinder the expedition. At Aulis, he declared that Agamemnon must sacrifice Iphigenia to Artemis so the Greek fleet could sail and Troy be sacked: “Agamemnon, thou wilt not lead forth thy ships from the ports of this land, before Diana shall receive thy daughter Iphigenia as a victim;” After returning from Troy, Calchas died at Mycenæ.