figure
Kalkhas (Calchas)
Kalkhas
also: Калхас, Calchas
The prophet-priest of the Iliad who divined the cause of Apollo's wrath against the Greeks at Troy; the stage role Svetlovidov has just played at his benefit, and the costume and grease-paint he is still wearing when he wakes alone in the empty theater.
Reading notes
- Kalkhas §1 костюме Калхаса
Svetlovidov is still in the grease-paint and costume of Kalkhas -- the Russian rendering of Calchas, the prophet-priest of Homer's Iliad who divines that Agamemnon must give up Chryseis to end Apollo's plague on the Greek camp. The role frames the whole story: a man who has spent the night playing a seer of doom wakes to recognize, too late, his own old age.