Editing Calchas (section)

{{Short description|Seer in Greek mythology}}
{{about|the ancient Greek seer |the scorpion genus |Calchas (scorpion) |the Jovian asteroid|4138 Kalchas}}
{{distinguish|Calchus}}
{{Infobox character
| name              = Calchas Thestorides<br>Κάλχας Θεστορίδης
| series            = Trojan War
| image             = Fresco Iphigeneia MAN Naples.jpg
| image_upright     = 1
| alt               = A [[peristyle]] fresco from [[Pompeii]] showing Calchas presiding over the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter, [[Iphigenia|Iphigeneia]], as the divine price for winds to carry the fleet to Troy.
| caption           = Calchas presides at the sacrifice of [[Iphigenia|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_major       = Epic poetry
| first_minor       = Iliad
| first_date        =
| last_major        = 
| last_minor        = <!-- or |last_issue= -->
| last_date         = 
| creator           = 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
| designer          = 
| portrayer         = 
| voice             = 
| motion_actor      = 
| full_name         = 
| nickname          = <!-- or |nicknames= -->
| alias             = <!-- or |aliases= -->
| species           = <!-- or |race=; for non-humans only -->
| gender            = <!-- if not obvious -->
| title             = Guide
| occupation        = Seer, Greek Mantis, in the sense of one who knows the divine will.<ref>Same root as English "mind:" {{cite encyclopedia | title=*men-<sup>1</sup> | chapter=Appendix I: Indo-European Roots | encyclopedia=The American Heritage Dictionary | edition=Fourth | year=2009 | location=Boston; New York | publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt}}</ref>
| affiliation       = Achaean army
| fighting_style    = 
| weapon            = 
| family            = 
| spouse            = <!-- or |spouses= -->
| significant_other = <!-- or |significant_others= -->
| children          = 
| relatives         = 
| religion          = 
| origin            = Argos in the Peloponnesus
| nationality       = Achaean 
}}

'''Calchas''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|æ|l|k|ə|s}}; {{langx|grc|Κάλχας}}, ''Kalkhas'') is an [[Argive]] mantis, or "[[Divination|seer]]," dated to the Age of Legend, which is an aspect of [[Greek mythology]]. Calchas appears in the opening scenes of the ''[[Iliad]]'', which is believed to have been based on a [[Trojan War|war]] conducted by the Achaeans against the powerful city of [[Troy]] in the [[Late Bronze Age]].

Calchas, a seer in the service of the army before Troy, is portrayed as a skilled augur, Greek ''ionópolos'' ('bird-savant'):<ref>The English word ''augur'', based on a [[Augur|Roman official]] of that name, is used to mean a person of any culture engaged in [[ornithomancy]]. There were no Romans at Troy, as Rome had not yet been founded.</ref> "as an augur, Calchas had no rival in the camp."<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' I, lines 68-72 ([[E.V. Rieu]] translation).</ref>

He received knowledge of the past, present, and future from the god, [[Apollo]]. He had other mantic skills as well: [[Haruspicy|interpreting the entrails]] of the enemy during the tide of battle.<ref>[[Quintus Smyrnaeus|Quintus of Smyrna]],  ''[[Posthomerica]]'' IX (Alan James translation). The art is based on the Roman word for it. They inherited it from the [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscans]], but in English it means of any culture. There were no Romans or Etruscans at Troy.</ref> His [[Greek divination|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.”<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | title=κάλχας (Calchas) | author1=Henry George Liddell | author2=Robert Scott | encyclopedia=A Greek-English Lexicon | publisher=Perseus Digital Library | url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D*ka%2Flxas}} Liddell and Scott, following the tradition of J.B. Hoffman, relate the name to κάλχη (kalkhe), the purple murex, exactly in the sense of the English mood word "blue". As there is no clear path to an Indo-European root, some suggest a loan word. Hoffman and some others also relate it to Old English gealg or gealh, from an East Germanic *galgaz, "grim", but there is no Indo-European root for that, either. In the most speculative suggestion, the darkness is not blueness but is the color of corroded bronze (kalkhos). Excluded is Old English gealga, "melancholy" from “gallows", with an Indo-European root "branch".</ref> Calchas has a long literary history after Homer. His appearance in the ''[[Iliad]]'' is no sort of “first” except for the chronological sequence of literature. In the legendary time of the ''[[Iliad]]'', seers and divination are already long-standing.