Cassandra

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Cassandra

In Greek mythology, Cassandra ("she who entangles men") (also known as Alexandra) was a daughter of King Priam of Troy and his queen Hecuba, who captured the eye of Apollo and was granted the gift of prophecy. However, when she did not return his love, Apollo placed a curse on her so that no one would ever believe her predictions.

History

In an alternative version, she spent a night at Apollo's temple with her twin brother, at which time the temple snakes licked her ears clean so that she was able to hear the future. This is a recurring theme in Greek mythology, though sometimes it brings an ability to understand the language of animals rather than an ability to know the future.

Apollo loved Cassandra, and when she did not return his love, he cursed her so that her former gift would become a source of endless pain and frustration. In some versions of the myth, this is symbolised by the god spitting into her mouth; in other Greek myths, this act was sufficient to remove the gift so recently given by Apollo, but Cassandra's case varies. From the play Agamemnon, it appears that she made a promise to Apollo to become his consort, but broke it, thus incurring his wrath.

When Cassandra foresees the destruction of Troy (she warns the Trojans about the Trojan Horse, the death of Agamemnon, and her own demise), she is unable to do anything to forestall these events. Her family believes she is mad, and, according to some versions, kept her locked up because of this. From her appearances in various plays, it seems that the incarceration drove her truly mad, at least by the time of Troy's destruction.

Coroebus and Othronus came to the aid of Troy out of love for Cassandra. Cassandra was also the first to see the body of her brother Hector being brought back to the city.

After the Trojan War, she sought shelter in the temple of Athena, where she was raped by Ajax the Lesser. Cassandra is then taken as a concubine by King Agamemnon of Mycenae. Unbeknownst to Agamemnon, while he was away at war, his wife, Clytemnestra, had begun an affair with Aegisthus. Upon Agamemnon and Cassandra's arrival in Mycenae, Clytemnestra asks her husband to walk across a purple carpet. He initially refuses, but gives in and enters, ignoring Cassandra's warnings. Clytemnestra and Aegisthus then murder both Agamemnon and Cassandra. Some sources mention that Cassandra and Agamemnon have twin boys Teledamus and Pelops, both of whom are killed by Aegisthus.

Homer. Iliad XXIV, 697-706; Homer. Odyssey XI, 405-434; Aeschylus. Agamemnon; Euripides. Trojan Women; Euripides. Electra; Apollodorus. Bibliotheke III, xii, 5; Apollodorus. Epitome V, 17-22; VI, 23; Virgil. Aeneid II, 246-

Troilus and Criseyde

Cassandra appears in Book V of Geoffrey Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde as the sister of the protagonist Troilus.

When Troilus has a dream where his lover Criseyde is engaged in an erotic liaison with a boar, he goes to Cassandra to interpret the dream for him. She correctly interprets it to mean that Criseyde has left Troilus for the Greek warrior, Diomede. (Who has an ancestor famous for slaying a boar.)

As a result of her curse, Troilus does not believe Cassandra and dismisses what she says:

"`Thou seyst nat sooth,' quod he, `thou sorceresse,

With al thy false goost of prophesye!

Thou wenest been a greet devyneresse;

Now seestow not this fool of fantasye

Peyneth hir on ladyes for to lye?

Awey!' quod he. `Ther Ioves yeve thee sorwe!

Thou shalt be fals, paraunter, yet to-morwe!"

Modern adaptations

A modern psychological perspective on Cassandra is presented by Eric Shanower in Age of Bronze: Sacrifice. In this version, Cassandra, as a child, is molested by a man pretending to be a god. His warning "No one will believe you!" is one often spoken by abusers to their child victims.

A similar situation occurred in Lindsay Clarke's novel The Return from Troy (presented as a reawakened memory), where a priest of Apollo forced himself upon Cassandra and was stopped only when she spat in his mouth. When the priest used his benevolent reputation to convince Priam that he was innocent of her wild claims, Cassandra subsequently went insane.

The myth of Cassandra is also retold by German author Christa Wolf in "Kassandra." She retells the story from the point of view of Cassandra at the moment of her death and uses the myth as a metaphor for the both the unheard voice of the woman writer and the oppression and strict censorship laws of socialist East Germany.

Modern usage

In more modern literature, Cassandra has often served as a model for tragedy and Romance, and has given rise to the archetypical character of someone whose prophetic insight is obscured by insanity, turning their revelations into riddles or disjointed statements that are not fully comprehended until after the fact. Notable examples are the character of River Tam from the science fiction TV series Firefly and the science fiction short story "Cassandra" by C. J. Cherryh.

The word Cassandra has become widely used. In modern usage, however, a "Cassandra" tends to describe someone who makes true predictions which are disbelieved.

The Cassandra Syndrome is used to describe someone who believes that he or she can see the future but cannot do anything about it. Fictional character Dr. Kathryn Railly explores this syndrome and those who suffer from it in Twelve Monkeys''.

Cassandra is also known as Alexandra. In the video games Soul Calibur II and Soul Calibur III, there is a character named Cassandra Alexandra, the sister of Sophitia Alexandra (which is derived from "Sophia"). In Soul Edge, however, Cassandra's name was mistranslated as Kathandra.

The story of Cassandra was also used in a song by Norwegian goth band Theatre of Tragedy, entitled "Cassandra" on the concept album Aégis, and also in multiple songs by epic metal band Blind Guardian.

Folk and popular music group ABBA also used the story of Cassandra in one of their last recorded songs entitled "Cassandra".

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History

Troilus and Criseyde

Modern adaptations

Modern usage

Further reading