Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Chryses.
The gallery
Chryses Ransoming Chryseis from Agamemnon
Painter of Athens 1714, c. 360–350 BC
Apulian volute-krater (Louvre): Chryses pleads before Agamemnon for Chryseis — the Homeric embassy the king refuses, opening Apollo's plague. Not Chryses son of Minos on Paros.
Chryses Vainly Soliciting the Return of Chryseis
Jacopo Alessandro Calvi, c. 18th century
Calvi stages Iliad 1: the priest of Apollo Smintheus before Agamemnon's tent — wreaths, ransom, and the refusal that will empty the Achaean camp.
Chryses Persuading Apollo to Send the Plague
Jacopo Alessandro Calvi, c. 18th century
The sequel on the shore: Chryses' prayer answered — Apollo's arrows as the priest's revenge for his daughter's captivity.
Chryses on the Seashore
Friedrich Preller the Elder, 19th century
Preller isolates Homer's old man walking the resounding sea after Agamemnon's threats — the quiet moment before he calls Apollo.
Chryses Begs Agamemnon for His Daughter
Unknown (Speculum Heroicum Homeri), c. 1613
Rijksmuseum engraving from the Speculum Heroicum: Chryses' supplication as a stock Homeric emblem — the priest who starts the wrath.
In play
Iliad
Homer
Book 1 opens on Chryses: Agamemnon refuses his ransom, Apollo sends the plague, and the priest's prayer becomes the first wound of the poem.
Chryses (priest of Apollo)
Priest of Apollo at Chryse, father of Chryseis — not Chryses son of Minos slain by Heracles on Paros.