Calchus

Minor Spiritfolk-consensusAncient Greek mythAeaea (mythic island)Daunia (Apulia, southern Italy)

Calchus (Ancient Greek: Κάλχος, Kalkhos) is a mortal king of the Daunians in a later Greek mythic episode preserved by Parthenius of Nicaea. He persistently courted the sorceress-goddess Circe at her island Aeaea, was transformed into a pig by her enchantments, and later restored after his people intervened.

Origin

Calchus appears as a narrative figure interpolated into the Odyssey-cycle material: a later tale attested in the works of Parthenius of Nicaea recounts that while Odysseus stayed on Circe's island Aeaea, Calchus, king of the Daunians, fell in love with Circe and repeatedly sought her. After persistent courting and an offer of kingship, Circe used her sorcery to transform him into a pig; he was later restored to human form when his people came to secure his release and he swore never to visit or woo her again.

Appearance

Sources provide no detailed original portrait of Calchus as a human. The only described change of appearance is that Circe enchanted him and transformed him into a pig during the episode; his restored human appearance after the intervention of the Daunians is noted but not described.

Abilities

Calchus is portrayed as a mortal king without supernatural powers. His prominent behaviors are persistent courtship and the political gesture of offering kingship to Circe. He functions narratively as a suitor whose immoderate pursuit of a divine/magical figure elicits a corrective metamorphosis by that figure.

Weaknesses & Wards

Weaknesses

  • other
    mortal vulnerability to Circe's enchantments

Wards

None recorded.

Entity Network
CCircePPenelopeCCalchus
related
Related Entities
Circe
Greater

Circe

Circe is a figure of Greek myth known as a practitioner of potent pharmacological and ritual arts who occupies a liminal status between goddess, nymph, and witch. She is famed for her knowledge of herbs and potions, her ability to transform humans into animals in narrative episodes, and for performing ritual purification in at least one classical source.

Penelope
Minor Spirit

Penelope

Penelope is a legendary mortal queen of Ithaca in the Homeric epic tradition, famed for her marital fidelity to Odysseus and for using weaving as a stratagem to delay remarriage. Later commentators record etiological and folk-etymological tales linking her name to certain birds (pēnelopes) and to motifs of disappearance and return.

Community Record

Sources
  1. [1]
    Calchus — Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors. "Calchus." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.wiki
  2. [2]
    Calchos — Wikidata. Wikidata entry Q3650492, Calchos.other
  3. [3]
    The lost tales of Miletus (archive). Archive.org scanned text including Parthenius material as cited in research notes.literary
folk-consensus