Calchas

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Calchas is recalled in Canto XX of the Inferno as the augur who gave the sign ("diede 'l punto") for the departure of the Greeks for Troy, according to the tradition that presents him as astrologer and diviner in the retinue of Agamemnon. Dante mentions him to establish a parallel between the divination of antiquity and that practiced in his own time: just as Calchas advised the Greek princes on favorable occasions, so Guido Bonatti advised Guido da Montefeltro on military undertakings. In the poem Calchas is not introduced directly as a character in the infernal scene, but is cited by a damned soul (Eurypylus) to describe his own art of divination. The note on verses 108-10 specifies that Dante's recollection relies on the Virgilian account mediated by the false tale of Sinon, who attributes to Eurypylus the mission to Apollo to propitiate the winds. By treating ancient and modern diviners in the same way, Dante places the mythical figure on the same level as those responsible for the astrological frauds of his own present.