Calchus

A king of the Daunii of southeastern Italy. He fell in love with Circe who was at time in love with Odysseus. She loathed Calchus and forbade him to come to land on her island, but he came anyway. Angered, she invited him into her palace and set before him a table covered with food, but the meats were stuffed with magical herbs. As soon as he ate them he went mad, and Circe shut him in the pig-sty.

When the Daunian army landed on her island looking for him, she released him from the enchantment on the condition that he would never set a foot on her island again.

References

Sources

  • Parthenius, xii.
  • Vollmer, Wilhelm. (1874). Wörterbuch der Mythologie. Stuttgart, p. 120.