Who Is Chryses?
Apollo's priest whose daughter was taken
Chryses is an elderly priest who serves Apollo in the town of Chryse, and the man whose plea sets off the quarrel at the start of the Iliad.
In Episode 1, he comes to the Greek camp to win back his daughter Chryseis, who has been taken captive. He brings a great ransom and a staff bearing the sacred ribbons of his priesthood. The other Greeks urge that he be respected, but Agamemnon threatens him, telling him never to come back. The old man walks silently along the shore and prays to Apollo, asking the god to remember the sacrifices he has offered and to punish the Greeks.
Later, when his daughter is returned to him by ship, Chryses prays again, this time asking Apollo to lift the plague from the Greeks.
