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{{Short description|Mythological prophetess and princess of Troy}}
{{Short description|Mythological prophetess and princess of Troy}}
{{About|the Greek mythological prophet}}
{{About|the Greek mythological prophet}}{{Infobox deity
[[File:Cassandra1.jpeg|thumb|''Cassandra'' by [[Evelyn De Morgan]] (1898, London); Cassandra in front of the burning city of Troy, depicted with disheveled hair denoting the insanity ascribed to her by the Trojans<ref>[[John Lemprière]], Lemprière’s Classical Dictionary, first published 1788, London</ref>]]
| type = Greek
| image = Cassandra1.jpeg
| caption = Cassandra by [[Evelyn De Morgan]] (1898, London); Cassandra in front of the burning city of [[Troy]], depicted with disheveled hair denoting the insanity ascribed to her by the Trojans <ref>[[John Lemprière]], Lemprière’s Classical Dictionary, first published 1788, London</ref>
| abode = [[Troy]], [[Mycenae]]
| consort = [[Agamemnon]]
| father = [[Priam]]
| mother = [[Hecuba]]
| god_of = [[Troy|Trojan]] Princess<br>
Priestess of [[Apollo]]
| siblings = [[Hector]], [[Paris (mythology)|Paris]], [[Troilus]], [[Creusa (wife of Aeneas)|Creusa]], [[Polyxena]], [[Helenus (son of Priam)|Helenus]]
}}


'''Cassandra''' or '''Kassandra''' ({{IPAc-en|k|ə|'|s|æ|n|d|r|ə}};<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/newcenturyclassi00aver/page/258/mode/2up |page=258 |title=New Century Classical Handbook |first=Catherine B. |last=Avery |publisher=Appleton-Century-Crofts |location=New York |year=1962}}</ref> {{langx|grc|Κασσάνδρα}}, {{IPA|el|kas:ándra|pron}}, sometimes referred to as '''Alexandra'''; {{lang|grc|Ἀλεξάνδρα}})<ref>[[Lycophron]], ''Alexandra'' [https://archive.org/stream/callimachuslycop00calluoft#page/496/mode/2up 30]; [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:3.19 3.19], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:3.26 3.26].</ref> in [[Greek mythology]] was a Trojan priestess dedicated to the god [[Apollo]] and fated by him to utter true [[prophecy|prophecies]] but never to be believed. In modern usage her name is employed as a rhetorical device to indicate a person whose accurate prophecies, generally of impending disaster, are not believed.
In [[Greek mythology]], '''Cassandra''', also spelled '''Kassandra''' or '''Casandra''', ({{IPAc-en|k|ə|'|s|æ|n|d|r|ə}};<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/newcenturyclassi00aver/page/258/mode/2up |page=258 |title=New Century Classical Handbook |first=Catherine B. |last=Avery |publisher=Appleton-Century-Crofts |location=New York |year=1962}}</ref> {{langx|grc|Κασ(σ)άνδρα}}, {{IPA|el|kas:ándra|pron}}, or referred to as '''Alexandra'''; {{lang|grc|Ἀλεξάνδρα}})<ref>[[Lycophron]], ''Alexandra'' [https://archive.org/stream/callimachuslycop00calluoft#page/496/mode/2up 30]; [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:3.19 3.19], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:3.26 3.26].</ref> was a [[Troy|Trojan]] [[Priest|priestess]] dedicated to the god [[Apollo]] and fated by him to utter true [[prophecy|prophecies]], but never be believed. Cassandra lived through the [[Trojan War]] and survived the sack of the city, but was murdered by [[Clytemnestra]] and [[Aegisthus]] when [[Agamemnon]] brought her to [[Mycenae]] as a ''[[pallake]]''.  


Cassandra was [[List of children of Priam|a daughter]] of King [[Priam]] and Queen [[Hecuba]] of [[Troy]]. Her elder brother was [[Hector]], the hero of the Greek-[[Trojan War]]. The older and most common versions of the myth state that she was admired by the god Apollo, who sought to win her love by means of the gift of seeing the future. According to [[Aeschylus]], she promised him her favours, but after receiving the gift, she went back on her word. As the enraged Apollo could not revoke a divine power, he added to it the curse that nobody would believe her prophecies. In other sources, such as [[Fabulae|Hyginus]] and [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Pseudo-Apollodorus]], Cassandra broke no promise to Apollo, but rather the power of foresight was given to her as an enticement to enter into a romantic engagement, the curse being added only when it failed to produce the result desired by the god.
In contemporary usage, her name is employed as a rhetorical device to indicate a person whose accurate predictions, generally of impending disaster, are not believed.  
 
Later versions on the contrary describe her falling asleep in a temple, where snakes licked (or whispered into) her ears which enabled her to hear the future.{{Efn|A snake as a source of knowledge is a recurring theme in Greek mythology, though sometimes the snake brings understanding of the language of animals rather than an ability to know the future. Likewise, prophets without honor in their own country reflect a standard narrative trope.}}


==Etymology==
==Etymology==
[[Hjalmar Frisk]] (''Griechisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch'', Heidelberg, 1960–1970) notes "unexplained etymology", citing "various hypotheses" found in Wilhelm Schulze,<ref>Wilhelm Schulze, ''Kleine Schriften'' (1966), 698, J. B. Hoffmann, ''Glotta'' '''28''', 52</ref> [[Edgar Howard Sturtevant]],<ref>[[Edgar Howard Sturtevant]], ''Class. Phil.'' '''21''', 248ff.</ref> J. Davreux,<ref>J. Davreux, ''La légende de la prophétesse Cassandre'' (Paris, 1942) 90ff.</ref> and [[Albert Carnoy|Albert Carnoy.]]<ref>[[:fr:Albert Carnoy|Albert Carnoy]], ''Les ét. class.'' '''22''', 344</ref> [[Robert S. P. Beekes|R. S. P. Beekes]]<ref>[[Robert S. P. Beekes|R. S. P. Beekes]], ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, p.&nbsp;654</ref> cites García Ramón's derivation of the name from the [[Proto-Indo-European]] root *''(s)kend-'' "raise". The Online Etymology Dictionary states "though the second element looks like a fem. form of Greek ''andros'' "of man, male human being." Watkins suggests PIE ''*(s)kand-'' "to shine" as source of second element. The name also has been connected to ''kekasmai'' "to surpass, excel.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Online Etymology Dictionary|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/cassandra|url-status=live|access-date=November 27, 2021|website=Online Etymology Dictionary|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190501165946/https://www.etymonline.com/word/cassandra |archive-date=2019-05-01 }}</ref>"
[[Hjalmar Frisk]] (''Griechisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch'', Heidelberg, 1960–1970) notes "unexplained etymology", citing "various hypotheses" found in Wilhelm Schulze,<ref>Wilhelm Schulze, ''Kleine Schriften'' (1966), 698, J. B. Hoffmann, ''Glotta'' '''28''', 52</ref> [[Edgar Howard Sturtevant]],<ref>[[Edgar Howard Sturtevant]], ''Class. Phil.'' '''21''', 248ff.</ref> J. Davreux,<ref>J. Davreux, ''La légende de la prophétesse Cassandre'' (Paris, 1942) 90ff.</ref> and [[Albert Carnoy]].<ref>[[:fr:Albert Carnoy|Albert Carnoy]], ''Les ét. class.'' '''22''', 344</ref> [[Robert S. P. Beekes|R. S. P. Beekes]]<ref>[[Robert S. P. Beekes|R. S. P. Beekes]], ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, p.&nbsp;654</ref> cites García Ramón's derivation of the name from the [[Proto-Indo-European]] root *''(s)kend-'' "raise". The Online Etymology Dictionary states "though the second element looks like a fem. form of Greek ''andros'' "of man, male human being." Watkins suggests PIE ''*(s)kand-'' "to shine" as source of second element. The name also has been connected to ''kekasmai'' "to surpass, excel.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Online Etymology Dictionary|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/cassandra|url-status=live|access-date=November 27, 2021|website=Online Etymology Dictionary|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190501165946/https://www.etymonline.com/word/cassandra |archive-date=2019-05-01 }}</ref>"


== Description ==
== Description ==
Cassandra was described by the chronicler [[John Malalas|Malalas]] in his account of the ''Chronography'' as "shortish, round-faced, white, mannish figure, good nose, good eyes, dark pupils, blondish, curly, good neck, bulky breasts, small feet, calm, noble, priestly, an accurate prophet foreseeing everything, practicing hard, virgin".<ref>[[John Malalas|Malalas]], ''Chronography'' [https://topostext.org/work/793#5.106 5.106] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220813024349/https://topostext.org/work/793#5.106 |date=2022-08-13 }}</ref> Meanwhile, in the account of [[Dares Phrygius|Dares the Phrygian]], she was illustrated as ". . .of moderate stature, round-mouthed, and [[Auburn hair|auburn-haired]]. Her eyes flashed. She knew the future."<ref>[[Dares Phrygius]], ''History of the Fall of Troy'' [https://www.theoi.com/Text/DaresPhrygius.html 12] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407120900/http://www.theoi.com/Text/DaresPhrygius.html |date=2023-04-07 }}</ref>
Cassandra was described by the chronicler [[John Malalas|Malalas]] in his account of the ''Chronography'' as "shortish, round-faced, white, mannish figure, good nose, good eyes, dark pupils, blondish, curly, good neck, bulky breasts, small feet, calm, noble, priestly, an accurate prophet foreseeing everything, practicing hard, virgin".<ref>[[John Malalas|Malalas]], ''Chronography'' [https://topostext.org/work/793#5.106 5.106] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220813024349/https://topostext.org/work/793#5.106 |date=2022-08-13 }}</ref> Meanwhile, in the account of [[Dares Phrygius|Dares the Phrygian]], she was illustrated as ". . .of moderate stature, round-mouthed, and [[Auburn hair|auburn-haired]]. Her eyes flashed. She knew the future."<ref>[[Dares Phrygius]], ''History of the Fall of Troy'' [https://www.theoi.com/Text/DaresPhrygius.html 12] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407120900/http://www.theoi.com/Text/DaresPhrygius.html |date=2023-04-07 }}</ref> In the ''[[Iliad]]'', [[Homer]] described Cassandra as the fairest of all Priam's daughters.<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0217:book=13:card=361 13.361]</ref> [[Euripides]] wrote that she had golden hair and wore a crown of [[Laurel wreath|laurels]] when prophesizing.<ref>[[Euripides]], ''[[Iphigenia in Aulis]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0108:card=751 751]</ref>
 
==Biography==
[[File:Woodcut illustration of Cassandra's prophecy of the fall of Troy (at left) and her death (at right) - Penn Provenance Project.jpg|thumb|Woodcut illustration of Cassandra's prophecy of the fall of Troy (at left) and her death (at right), from an [[Incunable]] German translation by Heinrich Steinhöwel of [[Giovanni Boccaccio]]'s ''[[De mulieribus claris]]'', printed by {{Interlanguage link|Johann Zainer|de}} at Ulm ca. 1474.]]
 
Cassandra was one of the many children born to the king and queen of Troy, [[Priam]] and [[Hecuba]]. She is the [[fraternal twin]] sister of [[Helenus of Troy|Helenus]], as well as the sister to [[Hector]] and [[Paris (mythology)|Paris]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Apollodorus, Library, book 3, chapter 12, section 5|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.%203.12.5&lang=original|access-date=2021-11-10|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu|archive-date=2022-06-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220616054853/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.%203.12.5&lang=original|url-status=live}}</ref> One of the oldest and most common versions of her myth states that Cassandra was admired for her beauty and intelligence by the god Apollo, who sought to win her with the gift to see the future. According to [[Aeschylus]], Cassandra promised Apollo favors, but, after receiving the gift, went back on her word and refused Apollo. Since the enraged Apollo could not revoke a divine power, he added a curse that nobody would believe Cassandra's prophecies.
 
==Mythology==
[[File:Terracotta Nolan neck-amphora (jar) MET DT369516.jpg|thumb|"Cassandra and Ajax" depicted on a terracotta [[amphora]], ''circa'' 450 BC]]
Cassandra appears in texts written by [[Homer]], [[Virgil]], [[Aeschylus]] and [[Euripides]].  Each author depicts her prophetic powers differently.
 
In Homer's work, Cassandra is mentioned a total of four times "as a virgin daughter of Priam, as bewailing Hector's death, as chosen by [[Agamemnon]] as his slave mistress after the sack of Troy, and is killed by [[Clytemnestra]] over Agamemnon's corpse after Clytemnestra murders him on his return home.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Dillion|first=Matthew|title=Kassandra: Mantic, Maenadic or Manic? Gender and the Nature of Prophetic Experience in Ancient Greece|url=https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-11-27|website=openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170205001927/https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/ |archive-date=2017-02-05 }}</ref>"
 
In Virgil's work, Cassandra appears in  book two of his epic poem titled ''[[Aeneid]]'', with her powers of prophecy restored. In Book 2 of the Aeneid, unlike Homer, Virgil presents Cassandra as having fallen into a mantic state<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Trinacty|first=Christopher V.|title=Catastrophe in Dialogue|date=2016|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/90001703|journal=Vergilius|volume=62|pages=108|jstor=90001703|issn=0506-7294|archive-date=2021-11-28|access-date=2021-12-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128010449/https://www.jstor.org/stable/90001703|url-status=live}}</ref> and her prophecies reflect it.
Likewise [[Seneca the Younger]], in his play [[Agamemnon (Seneca)|''Agamemnon'']], has her prophesy why Agamemnon deserves his recorded death:<blockquote>''Quid me vocatis sospitem solam e meis, umbrae meorum? te sequor, tota pater Troia sepulte; frater, auxilium Phrygum terrorque Danaum, non ego antiquum decus video aut calentes ratibus ambustis manus, sed lacera membra et saucios vinclo gravi illos lacertos. te sequor… (Ag. 741–747)''<br><br>
''Why do you call me, the lone survivor of my family, My shades? I follow you, father buried with all of Troy; Brother, bulwark of Trojans, terrorizer of Greeks, I do not see your beauty of old or hands warmed by burnt ships, But your lacerated limbs and those famous shoulders savaged By heavy chains. I follow you...''<ref name=":0" /></blockquote>Later on in Seneca's work, this behavior is reflected in acts 4 and 5 as "Her mantic vision in act 4 will be supplemented by a further (in)sight into what is going on inside the palace in act 5 when she becomes a quasi-messenger and provides a meticulous account of Agamemnon's murder in the bath: 'I see and I am there and I enjoy it, no false vision deceives my eyes: let's watch' (''video et intersum et fruor, / imago visus dubia non fallit meos: / spectemus''.)<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Trinacty|first=Christopher V.|title=Catastrophe in Dialogue|date=2016|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/90001703|journal=Vergilius|volume=62|pages=110–111|jstor=90001703|issn=0506-7294|archive-date=2021-11-28|access-date=2021-12-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128010449/https://www.jstor.org/stable/90001703|url-status=live}}</ref>"


===Gift of prophecy===
== Gift of prophecy ==
Cassandra was given the gift of prophecy, but was also cursed by the god Apollo so that her true prophecies would not be believed. Many versions of the myth relate that she incurred the god's wrath by refusing him sexual favours after promising herself to him in exchange for the power of prophecy. In Aeschylus' ''Agamemnon'', she bemoans her relationship with Apollo:
Cassandra was given the gift of uttering true prophecies, but was cursed so that they would never be believed. Commonly, Cassandra incurred [[Apollo|Apollo's]] wrath by refusing him sexual favors after promising herself to him in exchange for the gift of prophecy.<ref>Apollodorus, ''Library'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.12.5&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022 3.12.5]</ref>
In [[Aeschylus|Aeschylus']] ''[[Agamemnon (Aeschylus)|Agamemnon]]'', she bemoans her relationship with the god:
<blockquote><poem>Apollo, Apollo!
<blockquote><poem>Apollo, Apollo!
God of all ways, but only Death's to me,
God of all ways, but only Death's to me,
Line 40: Line 34:
<blockquote><poem>I consented [marriage] to Loxias [Apollo] but broke my word. ... Ever since that fault I could persuade no one of anything.<ref>[[Aeschylus]], [[Agamemnon (play)|''Agamemnon'']] [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0085.tlg005.perseus-eng1:1202-1241 1208&ndash;1212].</ref></poem></blockquote>
<blockquote><poem>I consented [marriage] to Loxias [Apollo] but broke my word. ... Ever since that fault I could persuade no one of anything.<ref>[[Aeschylus]], [[Agamemnon (play)|''Agamemnon'']] [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0085.tlg005.perseus-eng1:1202-1241 1208&ndash;1212].</ref></poem></blockquote>


Latin author [[Fabulae|Hyginus]] in [[Fabulae]] says:<ref name="Cassandra at Stanford">{{cite web | url=http://www.stanford.edu/~plomio/cassandra.html | title=Cassandra | work=Mortal Women of the Trojan War | publisher=Stanford University | access-date=March 24, 2014 | archive-date=November 7, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107131205/http://www.stanford.edu/~plomio/cassandra.html | url-status=live }}</ref>
Latin author [[Fabulae|Hyginus]] writes in his ''[[Fabulae]]'':<ref name="Cassandra at Stanford">{{cite web |title=Cassandra |url=http://www.stanford.edu/~plomio/cassandra.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107131205/http://www.stanford.edu/~plomio/cassandra.html |archive-date=November 7, 2012 |access-date=March 24, 2014 |work=Mortal Women of the Trojan War |publisher=Stanford University}}</ref>
 
{{blockquote|Cassandra, daughter of the king and queen, in the temple of Apollo, exhausted from practising, is said to have fallen asleep; whom, when Apollo wished to embrace her, she did not afford the opportunity of her body. On account of which thing, when she prophesied true things, she was not believed.}}
{{blockquote|Cassandra, daughter of the king and queen, in the temple of Apollo, exhausted from practising, is said to have fallen asleep; whom, when Apollo wished to embrace her, she did not afford the opportunity of her body. On account of which thing, when she prophesied true things, she was not believed.}}


[[Louise Bogan]], an American poet, writes that another way Cassandra, as well as her twin brother Helenus, had earned their prophetic powers: "''she and her brother Helenus were left overnight in the temple of the Thymbraean Apollo. No reason has been advanced for this night in the temple; perhaps it was a ritual routinely performed by everyone. When their parents looked in on them the next morning, the children were entwined with serpents, which flicked their tongues into the children's ears. This enabled Cassandra and Helenus to divine the future.''" It would not be until Cassandra is much older that Apollo appears in the same temple and tried to seduce Cassandra, who rejects his advances, and curses her by making her prophecies not be believed.<ref name=":02">{{Cite web|last=Bogan|first=Louise|title=Cassandra in the Classical World|url=http://maps-legacy.org/poets/a_f/bogan/classical.htm|url-status=live|access-date=2021-11-28|website=maps-legacy.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128004209/http://maps-legacy.org/poets/a_f/bogan/classical.htm |archive-date=2021-11-28 }}</ref>
However, other versions of the story have been given; [[John Tzetzes|Tzetzes]] wrote that Cassandra and her brother [[Helenus (son of Priam)|Helenus]] received their gifts of prophecy after being left overnight in the temple of Apollo, and in the morning they were found with serpents licking their ears.<ref>Apollodorus, ''Library'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022:text=Library:book=1:chapter=9&highlight=cassandra#note20 1.9 Note 20]</ref> Additionally, [[Euripides]] wrote that Apollo left Cassandra to be a virgin, and the god was angered when [[Agamemnon]] took her as a concubine.<ref>[[Euripides]], ''[[The Trojan Women]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0124:card=1&highlight=cassandra 1.40]</ref>
 
Her cursed gift became an endless pain and frustration to her. She was seen as a liar and a madwoman by her family and by the Trojan people. Because of this, her father, Priam, had locked her away in a chamber and guarded her like the madwoman she was believed to be.<ref name=":02">{{Cite web |last=Bogan |first=Louise |title=Cassandra in the Classical World |url=http://maps-legacy.org/poets/a_f/bogan/classical.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128004209/http://maps-legacy.org/poets/a_f/bogan/classical.htm |archive-date=2021-11-28 |access-date=2021-11-28 |website=maps-legacy.org}}</ref> Though Cassandra made many predictions that went unheeded, the one prophecy that was believed was that of [[Paris (mythology)|Paris]] being her abandoned brother.<ref name="Cassandra">{{Cite web |title=Cassandra |url=http://www.maicar.com/GML/Cassandra.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070218172455/http://www.maicar.com:80/GML/Cassandra.html |archive-date=2007-02-18 |access-date=November 27, 2021}}</ref>
==Ancient sources==
[[File:Woodcut illustration of Cassandra's prophecy of the fall of Troy (at left) and her death (at right) - Penn Provenance Project.jpg|thumb|Woodcut illustration of Cassandra's prophecy of the fall of Troy (left) and her death (right), from [[Giovanni Boccaccio]]'s ''[[De mulieribus claris]]'', printed by {{Interlanguage link|Johann Zainer|de}} at Ulm ca. 1474.]]Cassandra appears in texts by [[Homer]], [[Virgil]], [[Aeschylus]] and [[Euripides]]. While details such as her parentage remain the same between accounts, each author depicts her prophetic powers differently.
 
=== Homer ===
Cassandra is mentioned in both the ''[[Iliad]]'' and the ''[[Odyssey]]''. In the ''Iliad'', she is named as the comeliest daughter of King [[Priam]],<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0134:book=13:card=361 13.361]</ref> and a "peer of golden [[Aphrodite]]."<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0134:book=24:card=677 24.677]</ref> When her brother Hector was killed, she announced his death to the Trojan people so they could mourn and see his body as it was brought back into the city.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dillion |first=Matthew |title=Kassandra: Mantic, Maenadic or Manic? Gender and the Nature of Prophetic Experience in Ancient Greece |url=https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170205001927/https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/ |archive-date=2017-02-05 |access-date=2021-11-27 |website=openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au}}</ref>
 
In the ''Odyssey'', [[Agamemnon|Agamemnon's]] [[Ghost|shade]] informs [[Odysseus]] of his death at the hands of his wife [[Clytemnestra]]; Cassandra was murdered as she stood next to him.<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Odyssey]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0136:book=11:card=404 11.404]</ref>


Her cursed gift from Apollo became an endless pain and frustration to her. She was seen as a liar and a madwoman by her family and by the Trojan people. Because of this, her father, Priam, had locked her away in a chamber and guarded her like the madwoman she was believed to be.<ref name=":02" />  Though Cassandra made many predictions that went unbelieved, the one prophecy that was believed was that of Paris being her abandoned brother.<ref name="Cassandra">{{Cite web|title=Cassandra|url=http://www.maicar.com/GML/Cassandra.html|url-status=live|access-date=November 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070218172455/http://www.maicar.com:80/GML/Cassandra.html |archive-date=2007-02-18 }}</ref>[[File:Ajax drags Cassandra from Palladium.jpg|thumb|[[Menelaus]] captures [[Helen of Troy|Helen]] in Troy, [[Ajax the Lesser]] drags Cassandra from [[Palladium (classical antiquity)|Palladium]] before eyes of [[Priam]], Roman mural from the [[Casa del Menandro]], [[Pompeii]]]]
=== Virgil ===
As the ''[[Aeneid]]'' takes place after Cassandra's death, she is mentioned by multiple characters but does not appear herself. Cassandra is mentioned prophesizing the fall of Troy<ref name=":1">[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0054:book=2:card=234&highlight=cassandra 2.234]</ref> and Aeneas' journey to Italy.<ref name=":3">[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0054:book=3:card=147 3.147]</ref> In one scene, when Trojan soldiers saw the Greeks had kidnapped Cassandra from [[Minerva|Minerva's]] temple and bound her in chains, they attempted to free her, but were quickly defeated.<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0054%3Abook%3D2%3Acard%3D402 2.402]</ref> [[Coroebus]], who was in love with Cassandra, was the first to charge into battle. He died alongside [[Rhipeus]], [[Dymas]], and Hypanis.


===Cassandra and the Fall of Troy===
=== Seneca the Younger ===
Likewise [[Seneca the Younger]], in his play [[Agamemnon (Seneca)|''Agamemnon'']], has her prophesy why Agamemnon deserves his recorded death:<blockquote>''Quid me vocatis sospitem solam e meis, umbrae meorum? te sequor, tota pater Troia sepulte; frater, auxilium Phrygum terrorque Danaum, non ego antiquum decus video aut calentes ratibus ambustis manus, sed lacera membra et saucios vinclo gravi illos lacertos. te sequor… (Ag. 741–747)''<br><br>
''Why do you call me, the lone survivor of my family, My shades? I follow you, father buried with all of Troy; Brother, bulwark of Trojans, terrorizer of Greeks, I do not see your beauty of old or hands warmed by burnt ships, But your lacerated limbs and those famous shoulders savaged By heavy chains. I follow you...''<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Trinacty |first=Christopher V. |date=2016 |title=Catastrophe in Dialogue |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/90001703 |url-status=live |journal=Vergilius |volume=62 |pages=108 |issn=0506-7294 |jstor=90001703 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128010449/https://www.jstor.org/stable/90001703 |archive-date=2021-11-28 |access-date=2021-12-01}}</ref></blockquote>This behavior is reflected in acts 4 and 5 as "her mantic vision" is "supplemented by a further (in)sight into what is going on inside the palace in act 5 when she becomes a quasi-messenger and provides a meticulous account of Agamemnon's murder in the bath: 'I see and I am there and I enjoy it, no false vision deceives my eyes: let's watch' (''video et intersum et fruor, / imago visus dubia non fallit meos: / spectemus''.)."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Trinacty|first=Christopher V.|title=Catastrophe in Dialogue|date=2016|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/90001703|journal=Vergilius|volume=62|pages=110–111|jstor=90001703|issn=0506-7294|archive-date=2021-11-28|access-date=2021-12-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128010449/https://www.jstor.org/stable/90001703|url-status=live}}</ref>


====Before the fall of Troy====
=== Aeschylus ===
Before the fall of Troy took place, Cassandra foresaw that if Paris went to [[Sparta]] and brought [[Helen of Troy|Helen]] back as his wife, the arrival of Helen would spark the downfall and destruction of Troy during the Trojan War. Despite the prophecy and ignoring Cassandra's warning, Paris still went to Sparta and returned with Helen. While the people of Troy rejoiced, Cassandra, angry with Helen's arrival, furiously snatched away Helen's golden [[veil]] and tore at her hair.<ref name="Cassandra" />[[File:Aias und Kassandra (Tischbein).jpg|thumb|left|''Ajax and Cassandra'' by [[Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein]], 1806]]
[[File:Terracotta Nolan neck-amphora (jar) MET DT369516.jpg|thumb|"Cassandra and Ajax" depicted on a terracotta [[amphora]], ''circa'' 450 BC]]In Aeschylus' ''[[Agamemnon (Aeschylus)|Agamemnon]]'', a play in the ''[[Oresteia]]'' trilogy, Cassandra has been taken by [[Agamemnon]] to [[Mycenae]], where they are welcomed home by [[Clytemnestra]] and an entourage of servants. Agamemnon enters the palace after his wife but Cassandra remains outside in the chariot. There, Cassandra receives violent visions and prophesizes that Clytemnestra will murder Agamemnon; a crows watches on, but is unable to comprehend was she says.<ref>[[Aeschylus]], ''Agamemnon'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0004%3Acard%3D1107 1107].</ref>


In Virgil's epic poem, the Aeneid, Cassandra warned the Trojans about the Greeks hiding inside the [[Trojan Horse]], [[Agamemnon]]'s death, her own demise at the hands of [[Aegisthus]] and [[Clytemnestra]], her mother Hecuba's fate, [[Odysseus]]'s ten-year wanderings before returning to his home, and the murder of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra by the latter's children [[Electra]] and [[Orestes]]. Cassandra predicted that her cousin [[Aeneas]] would escape during the fall of Troy and found a new nation in Rome.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Internet Classics Archive {{!}} The Aeneid by Virgil|url=http://classics.mit.edu/Virgil/aeneid.html|access-date=2021-11-28|website=classics.mit.edu|archive-date=2014-02-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140213175320/http://classics.mit.edu/Virgil/aeneid.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
In this version of the story, Clytemnestra waits until Agamemnon has gotten into the bath before she entangles him in a net and stabs him three times with a blade.<ref>[[Aeschylus]], ''Agamemnon'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0004%3Acard%3D1372 1372].</ref> Cassandra, accepting her fate, walks into her inevitable offstage murder with full knowledge of what is to befall her.<ref>[[Bernard Knox]] ''Word and Action: Essays on the Ancient theatre'' (Baltimore and London: Penguin) 1979</ref>{{rp|pp. 42–55}}<ref>Anne Lebeck, ''The Oresteia: A study in language and structure'' (Washington) 1971</ref>{{rp|pp. 52–58}} Clytemnestra announces that she murdered Cassandra to avenge her honor as a wife, as she was insulted that Agamemnon took a concubine.<ref>[[Aeschylus]], ''Agamemnon'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0004%3Acard%3D1431 1431].</ref>[[File:Ajax drags Cassandra from Palladium.jpg|thumb|[[Menelaus]] captures [[Helen of Troy|Helen]] in Troy, [[Ajax the Lesser]] drags Cassandra from [[Palladium (classical antiquity)|Palladium]] before eyes of [[Priam]], Roman mural from the [[Casa del Menandro]], [[Pompeii]]]]


====During the fall of Troy====
== Mythology ==
[[Coroebus]] and [[Othronus]] came to the aid of Troy during the Trojan War out of love for Cassandra and in exchange for her hand in marriage, but both were killed.<ref name="illinois1">{{cite web|title=Cassandra in the Classical World|url=http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/bogan/classical.htm|access-date=2014-03-24|publisher=English.illinois.edu|archive-date=2019-05-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190511232901/http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/bogan/classical.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> According to one account, Priam offered Cassandra to [[Telephus]]'s son [[Eurypylus (son of Telephus)|Eurypylus]], in order to induce Eurypylus to fight on the side of the Trojans.<ref>[[Dictys Cretensis]] 4.14 (Frazer, p. 95).</ref> Cassandra was also the first to see the body of her brother [[Hector]] being brought back to the city.[[File:Jérome Martin Langlois the Younger – Cassandra Imploring the Vengeance of Minerva against Ajax.jpeg|thumb|Cassandra imploring [[Athena]] for revenge against Ajax, by [[Jérôme-Martin Langlois|Jerome-Martin Langlois]], 1810–1838.]]In ''The Fall of Troy'', told by [[Quintus Smyrnaeus]], Cassandra attempted to warn the Trojan people that Greek warriors were hiding in the Trojan Horse while they were celebrating their victory over the Greeks with feasting. Disbelieving Cassandra, the Trojans resorted to calling her names and hurling insults at her. Attempting to prove herself right, Cassandra took an axe in one hand and a burning torch in the other, and ran towards the Trojan Horse, intent on destroying the Greeks herself, but the Trojans stopped her. The Greeks hiding inside the Horse were relieved, but alarmed by how clearly she had divined their plan.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Smyrnaeus|first=Quintus|title=THE FALL OF TROY BOOK 12|url=https://www.theoi.com/Text/QuintusSmyrnaeus12.html|url-status=live|access-date=2021-11-28|website=www.theoi.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061120145727/http://www.theoi.com/Text/QuintusSmyrnaeus12.html |archive-date=2006-11-20 }}</ref>
[[File:Solomon Ajax and Cassandra.jpg|left|thumb|''[[Ajax and Cassandra]]'' by [[Solomon Joseph Solomon|Solomon J. Solomon]], 1886.]]
At the fall of Troy, Cassandra sought shelter in the temple of [[Athena]]. There she embraced the wooden statue of Athena in supplication for her protection, but was abducted and brutally raped by [[Ajax the Lesser]]. Cassandra clung so tightly to the statue of the goddess that Ajax knocked it from its stand as he dragged her away. The actions of Ajax were a sacrilege because Cassandra was a supplicant at the sanctuary under the protection of the goddess Athena, and Ajax further defiled the temple by raping Cassandra.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cassandra, Ancient Princess of Troy, Priestess and Prophetess|url=http://www.rwaag.org/cassandra|access-date=2021-11-28|website=The Role of Women in the Art of Ancient Greece|language=en-US|archive-date=2019-11-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191105083032/http://www.rwaag.org/cassandra|url-status=live}}</ref>


In Apollodorus chapter 6, section 6, Ajax's death comes at the hands of both Athena and [[Poseidon]]: "Athena threw a thunderbolt at the ship of Ajax; and when the ship went to pieces he made his way safe to a rock, and declared that he was saved in spite of the intention of Athena. But Poseidon smote the rock with his trident and split it, and Ajax fell into the sea and perished; and his body, being washed up, was buried by [[Thetis]] in [[Myconos]]".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Apollodorus, Epitome, book E, chapter 6, section 6|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022:text=Epitome:book=E:chapter=6:section=6|access-date=2021-11-28|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu|archive-date=2021-11-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128052149/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022:text=Epitome:book=E:chapter=6:section=6|url-status=live}}</ref>
====Before the fall of Troy====


[[File:Cassandre se met sous la protection de Pallas, Aimé Millet (1819-1891), Jardin des Tuileries, Paris.jpg|alt=Cassandra puts herself under the protection of Pallas, Aimé Millet (1819–1891), Tuileries Garden, Paris|thumb|266x266px|''Cassandra puts herself under the protection of Pallas'', [[Aimé Millet]] (1819–1891), [[Tuileries Garden]], Paris]]
Before the fall of Troy, Cassandra foresaw that if [[Paris (mythology)|Paris]] went to [[Sparta]] and brought [[Helen of Troy|Helen]] back as his wife, her arrival would spark the Trojan War and lead to the destruction of the city. Ignoring Cassandra's warning, Paris went to Sparta and returned with Helen. While the people of Troy rejoiced, Cassandra was enraged; she furiously snatched Helen's golden [[veil]] off her head and tore at her hair.<ref name="Cassandra" /> [[File:Aias und Kassandra (Tischbein).jpg|thumb|left|''Ajax and Cassandra'' by [[Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein]], 1806]]
In some versions, Cassandra intentionally left a chest behind in Troy, with a curse on whichever Greek opened it first.<ref name="maicar1">{{cite web|title=Cassandra – Greek Mythology Link|url=http://www.maicar.com/GML/Cassandra.html|access-date=2014-03-24|publisher=Maicar.com|archive-date=2019-04-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190423095106/http://www.maicar.com/GML/Cassandra.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Inside the chest was an image of [[Dionysus]], made by [[Hephaestus]] and presented to the Trojans by [[Zeus]]. It was given to the Greek leader [[Eurypylus (king of Thessaly)|Eurypylus]] as a part of his share of the victory spoils of Troy. When he opened the chest and saw the image of the god, he went mad.<ref name="maicar1" />


====The aftermath of Troy and Cassandra's death====
In the ''Aeneid'', Cassandra warned the Trojans about the Greeks hiding inside the [[Trojan Horse]], [[Agamemnon]]'s death, her own demise at the hands of [[Aegisthus]] and [[Clytemnestra]], her mother [[Hecuba]]'s fate, [[Odysseus]]'s ten-year wanderings before returning home, and the murder of [[Aegisthus]] and Clytemnestra by the latter's children [[Electra]] and [[Orestes]].<ref name=":1" /> Cassandra additionally predicted that her cousin [[Aeneas]] would escape during the fall of Troy and found a new nation in Rome.<ref name=":3" />
Once Troy had fallen, Cassandra was taken as a ''[[pallake]]'' (concubine) by [[King Agamemnon]] of [[Mycenae]].  While he was away at war, Agamemnon's wife, [[Clytemnestra]], had taken [[Aegisthus]] as her lover.  Cassandra and Agamemnon were later killed by either Clytemnestra or Aegisthus.  Various sources state that Cassandra and Agamemnon had twin boys, Teledamus and Pelops, who were murdered by Aegisthus.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Pausanias, Description of Greece, Corinth, chapter 16, section 6|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160:book=2:chapter=16:section=6|access-date=2021-11-28|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu|archive-date=2021-11-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128052148/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160:book=2:chapter=16:section=6|url-status=live}}</ref>


The final resting place of Cassandra is either in [[Amyclae]] or [[Mycenae]].  Statues of Cassandra exist both in Amyclae and across the [[Peloponnese]] peninsula from Mycenae to [[Leuctra]]. In Mycenae, German business man and pioneer archeologist [[Heinrich Schliemann]] discovered in [[Grave Circle A, Mycenae|Grave Circle A]] the graves of Cassandra and Agamemnon and telegraphed back to King [[George I of Greece]]:<blockquote>''With great joy I announce to Your Majesty that I have discovered the tombs which the tradition proclaimed by Pausanias indicates to be the graves of Agamemnon, Cassandra, Eurymedon and their companions, all slain at a banquet by Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthos.''</blockquote>However, it was later discovered that the graves predated the Trojan War by at least 300 years.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Harrington|first=Spencer P.M.|date=July–August 1999|title=Behind the Mask of Agamemnon|url=https://archive.archaeology.org/9907/etc/mask.html|journal=Archaeological Institute of America|volume=52|archive-date=2013-03-17|access-date=2021-12-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130317095640/http://archive.archaeology.org/9907/etc/mask.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
====The sack of Troy====
[[Coroebus]] and [[Othronus]] came to the aid of Troy during the Trojan War out of love for Cassandra and in exchange for her hand in marriage, but both were killed.<ref name="illinois1">{{cite web|title=Cassandra in the Classical World|url=http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/bogan/classical.htm|access-date=2014-03-24|publisher=English.illinois.edu|archive-date=2019-05-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190511232901/http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/bogan/classical.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> According to one account, Priam offered Cassandra to [[Telephus]]'s son [[Eurypylus (son of Telephus)|Eurypylus]], in order to induce Eurypylus to fight on the side of the Trojans.<ref>[[Dictys Cretensis]] 4.14 (Frazer, p. 95).</ref> Cassandra was also the first to see the body of her brother [[Hector]] being brought back to the city.[[File:Jérome Martin Langlois the Younger – Cassandra Imploring the Vengeance of Minerva against Ajax.jpeg|thumb|Cassandra imploring [[Athena]] for revenge against Ajax, by [[Jérôme-Martin Langlois|Jerome-Martin Langlois]], 1810–1838.]]In ''The Fall of Troy'' by [[Quintus Smyrnaeus]], Cassandra attempted to warn the Trojan people that Greek warriors were hiding in the Trojan Horse while they were celebrating their victory over the Greeks with feasting. Disbelieving Cassandra, the Trojans resorted to calling her names and hurling insults at her. Attempting to prove herself right, Cassandra took an axe in one hand and a burning torch in the other, and ran towards the Trojan Horse, intent on destroying the Greeks herself, but the Trojans stopped her. The Greeks hiding inside the Horse were relieved, but alarmed by how clearly she had divined their plan.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Smyrnaeus|first=Quintus|title=THE FALL OF TROY BOOK 12|url=https://www.theoi.com/Text/QuintusSmyrnaeus12.html|url-status=live|access-date=2021-11-28|website=www.theoi.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061120145727/http://www.theoi.com/Text/QuintusSmyrnaeus12.html |archive-date=2006-11-20 }}</ref>
[[File:Solomon Ajax and Cassandra.jpg|left|thumb|''[[Ajax and Cassandra]]'' by [[Solomon Joseph Solomon|Solomon J. Solomon]], 1886.]]
During the sack of the city, Cassandra sought shelter in the temple of [[Athena]]. There, she embraced the wooden statue of Athena in supplication for her protection, but was abducted and brutally raped by [[Ajax the Lesser]]. Cassandra clung so tightly to the statue of the goddess that Ajax knocked it from its stand as he dragged her away. Ajax's actions amounted to [[sacrilege]], as he had defiled both the Athena's temple and a person under her protection.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cassandra, Ancient Princess of Troy, Priestess and Prophetess|url=http://www.rwaag.org/cassandra|access-date=2021-11-28|website=The Role of Women in the Art of Ancient Greece|language=en-US|archive-date=2019-11-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191105083032/http://www.rwaag.org/cassandra|url-status=live}}</ref>


==''Agamemnon'' by Aeschylus==
In Pseudo-Apollodorus' ''Epitome'', Ajax's death comes at the hands of both Athena and [[Poseidon]]. Athena threw a thunderbolt at his ship, destroying it. Ajax made his way to safety on a rock, and declared that he had been saved in spite of Athena's intentions. However, Poseidon then split the rock with his trident, casting Ajax to his death. Eventually his body washed upon the shores of [[Mykonos|Myconos]], where he was buried by [[Thetis]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Apollodorus, Epitome, book E, chapter 6, section 6|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022:text=Epitome:book=E:chapter=6:section=6|access-date=2021-11-28|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu|archive-date=2021-11-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128052149/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022:text=Epitome:book=E:chapter=6:section=6|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[Image:Attic red-figure cup with Ajax and Cassandra Louvre G 458.jpg|thumb|Ajax taking Cassandra, tondo of a [[red-figure]] [[kylix (drinking cup)|kylix]] by the {{Interlanguage link|Kodros Painter|el|3=Ζωγράφος του Κόδρου}}, c. 440–430 BC, [[Louvre]]]]


The play ''[[Oresteia#Agamemnon|Agamemnon]]'' from Aeschylus's trilogy ''[[Oresteia]]'' depicts the king treading the scarlet cloth laid down for him, and walking offstage to his death.<ref name="Agamemnon"/>{{rp|ln. 972}} After the chorus's ode of foreboding, time is suspended in Cassandra's "[[mad scene]]".<ref name="The Cassandra Scene in Aeschylus' 'Agamemnon'">{{Cite journal |first=Seth L. |last=Schein |title=The Cassandra Scene in Aeschylus' 'Agamemnon' |journal=Greece & Rome |series=Second Series |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=11–16 |year=1982  |doi=10.1017/S0017383500028278|s2cid=162149807 }}</ref>{{rp|p. 11–16}} She has been onstage, silent and ignored. Her madness that is unleashed now is not the physical torment of other characters in [[Greek tragedy]], such as in [[Euripides]]' ''Heracles'' or [[Sophocles]]' ''Ajax''.
In some versions, Cassandra intentionally left a chest behind in Troy that would curse whichever Greek opened it first. Inside the chest was an image of [[Dionysus]], made by [[Hephaestus]] and presented to the Trojans by [[Zeus]]. It was given to the Greek leader [[Eurypylus (king of Thessaly)|Eurypylus]] as a part of his share of the victory spoils of Troy. When he opened the chest and saw the image of the god, he went mad.<ref name="maicar1">{{cite web |title=Cassandra – Greek Mythology Link |url=http://www.maicar.com/GML/Cassandra.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190423095106/http://www.maicar.com/GML/Cassandra.html |archive-date=2019-04-23 |access-date=2014-03-24 |publisher=Maicar.com}}</ref>


According to author Seth Schein, two further familiar descriptions of her madness are that of [[Heracles]] in ''[[The Women of Trachis]]'' or [[Io (mythology)|Io]] in ''[[Prometheus Bound]]''.<ref name="The Cassandra Scene in Aeschylus' 'Agamemnon'"/>{{rp|p. 11}} He specifies that her madness is not the type that uses language to descriptive physical agony or other physical symptoms. Instead, she speaks, disconnectedly and transcendent, in the grip of her [[spirit possession|psychic possession]] by Apollo,<ref name="Agamemnon">{{cite book | title=Agamemnon | type=play script | language=el | quote=The chorus find her to be "crazed in mind and transported by a god"}}</ref>{{rp|ln. 1140}} witnessing past and future events. Schein says, "She evokes the same awe, horror and pity as do [[schizophrenics]]".<ref name="The Cassandra Scene in Aeschylus' 'Agamemnon'"/>{{rp|p. 12}} Cassandra is one of those "who often combine deep, true insight with utter helplessness, and who retreat into madness."
====The aftermath of Troy and Cassandra's death====
Once Troy had fallen, Cassandra was taken as a ''[[pallake]]'' (concubine) by [[King Agamemnon]] of [[Mycenae]]. While he was away at war, Agamemnon's wife, [[Clytemnestra]], had taken [[Aegisthus]] as her lover. When Cassandra and Agememnon returned to Mycenae, they were ambushed and murdered by Clytemnestra or Aegisthus.<ref name=":2">[[Euripides]], ''[[Electra (Euripides play)|Electra]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0096:card=1&highlight=clytemnestra 1].</ref><ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Odyssey]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D11%3Acard%3D404 11.405-440].</ref> In many tellings, Cassandra foresees her death and willingly accepts it.<ref>[[Aeschylus]], ''Agamemnon'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0004%3Acard%3D1431 1431].</ref> Various sources state that Cassandra and Agamemnon had twin boys, Teledamus and Pelops, who were murdered by Aegisthus.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Pausanias, Description of Greece, Corinth, chapter 16, section 6|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160:book=2:chapter=16:section=6|access-date=2021-11-28|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu|archive-date=2021-11-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128052148/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160:book=2:chapter=16:section=6|url-status=live}}</ref>[[Image:Attic red-figure cup with Ajax and Cassandra Louvre G 458.jpg|thumb|Ajax taking Cassandra, tondo of a [[red-figure]] [[kylix (drinking cup)|kylix]] by the {{Interlanguage link|Kodros Painter|el|3=Ζωγράφος του Κόδρου}}, c. 440–430 BC, [[Louvre]]]]


[[Eduard Fraenkel]] remarked<ref name="The Cassandra Scene in Aeschylus' 'Agamemnon'"/>{{rp|p. 11, note 6}}<ref name="Kleine Beiträge zur klassische Philologie">{{ cite book | title=Kleine Beiträge zur klassische Philologie | first=Eduard | last=Fraenkel | volume=I | location=Rome | year=1964 | series=Storia e letteratura | language=de | type=book | oclc=644504522 }}</ref> on the powerful contrasts between declaimed and sung dialogue in this scene. The frightened and respectful chorus are unable to comprehend her. She goes to her inevitable offstage murder by [[Clytemnestra]] with full knowledge of what is to befall her.<ref>[[Bernard Knox]] ''Word and Action: Essays on the Ancient theatre'' (Baltimore and London: Penguin) 1979</ref>{{rp|pp. 42–55}}<ref>Anne Lebeck, ''The Oresteia: A study in language and structure'' (Washington) 1971</ref>{{rp|pp. 52–58}}
The final resting place of Cassandra is either in [[Amyclae]] or [[Mycenae]]. Statues of Cassandra exist both in Amyclae and across the [[Peloponnese]] peninsula from Mycenae to [[Leuctra]]. In Mycenae, German business man and pioneer archeologist [[Heinrich Schliemann]] discovered in [[Grave Circle A, Mycenae|Grave Circle A]] the graves of Cassandra and Agamemnon and telegraphed back to King [[George I of Greece]]:<blockquote>''With great joy I announce to Your Majesty that I have discovered the tombs which the tradition proclaimed by Pausanias indicates to be the graves of Agamemnon, Cassandra, Eurymedon and their companions, all slain at a banquet by Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthos.''</blockquote>However, it was later discovered that the graves predated the Trojan War by at least 300 years.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Harrington|first=Spencer P.M.|date=July–August 1999|title=Behind the Mask of Agamemnon|url=https://archive.archaeology.org/9907/etc/mask.html|journal=Archaeological Institute of America|volume=52|archive-date=2013-03-17|access-date=2021-12-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130317095640/http://archive.archaeology.org/9907/etc/mask.html|url-status=live}}</ref>


== See also ==
== See also ==
{{Portal|Ancient Greece|Myths}}
{{Portal|Ancient Greece|Mythology}}
 
* [[Apollo archetype]]
* [[Apollo archetype]]
* [[Novikov self-consistency principle]]
* [[Novikov self-consistency principle]]
* [[The Boy Who Cried Wolf]]
* [[The Boy Who Cried Wolf]]
* [[Tiresias]]
* [[Tiresias]]
 
* [[Comaetho (priestess)|Comaetho]]
== Notes ==
* [[Medusa]]
{{Notelist}}


== References ==
== References ==

Latest revision as of 03:23, 20 November 2025

Template:Short description Script error: No such module "about".Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Template:Wikidata imageTemplate:Compare image with Wikidata

In Greek mythology, Cassandra, also spelled Kassandra or Casandra, (Template:IPAc-en;[1] Template:Langx, Script error: No such module "IPA"., or referred to as Alexandra; Script error: No such module "Lang".)[2] was a Trojan priestess dedicated to the god Apollo and fated by him to utter true prophecies, but never be believed. Cassandra lived through the Trojan War and survived the sack of the city, but was murdered by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus when Agamemnon brought her to Mycenae as a pallake.

In contemporary usage, her name is employed as a rhetorical device to indicate a person whose accurate predictions, generally of impending disaster, are not believed.

Etymology

Hjalmar Frisk (Griechisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, 1960–1970) notes "unexplained etymology", citing "various hypotheses" found in Wilhelm Schulze,[3] Edgar Howard Sturtevant,[4] J. Davreux,[5] and Albert Carnoy.[6] R. S. P. Beekes[7] cites García Ramón's derivation of the name from the Proto-Indo-European root *(s)kend- "raise". The Online Etymology Dictionary states "though the second element looks like a fem. form of Greek andros "of man, male human being." Watkins suggests PIE *(s)kand- "to shine" as source of second element. The name also has been connected to kekasmai "to surpass, excel.[8]"

Description

Cassandra was described by the chronicler Malalas in his account of the Chronography as "shortish, round-faced, white, mannish figure, good nose, good eyes, dark pupils, blondish, curly, good neck, bulky breasts, small feet, calm, noble, priestly, an accurate prophet foreseeing everything, practicing hard, virgin".[9] Meanwhile, in the account of Dares the Phrygian, she was illustrated as ". . .of moderate stature, round-mouthed, and auburn-haired. Her eyes flashed. She knew the future."[10] In the Iliad, Homer described Cassandra as the fairest of all Priam's daughters.[11] Euripides wrote that she had golden hair and wore a crown of laurels when prophesizing.[12]

Gift of prophecy

Cassandra was given the gift of uttering true prophecies, but was cursed so that they would never be believed. Commonly, Cassandra incurred Apollo's wrath by refusing him sexual favors after promising herself to him in exchange for the gift of prophecy.[13] In Aeschylus' Agamemnon, she bemoans her relationship with the god:

Apollo, Apollo!
God of all ways, but only Death's to me,
Once and again, O thou, Destroyer named,
Thou hast destroyed me, thou, my love of old!

And she acknowledges her fault:

I consented [marriage] to Loxias [Apollo] but broke my word. ... Ever since that fault I could persuade no one of anything.[14]

Latin author Hyginus writes in his Fabulae:[15]

<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

Cassandra, daughter of the king and queen, in the temple of Apollo, exhausted from practising, is said to have fallen asleep; whom, when Apollo wished to embrace her, she did not afford the opportunity of her body. On account of which thing, when she prophesied true things, she was not believed.

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However, other versions of the story have been given; Tzetzes wrote that Cassandra and her brother Helenus received their gifts of prophecy after being left overnight in the temple of Apollo, and in the morning they were found with serpents licking their ears.[16] Additionally, Euripides wrote that Apollo left Cassandra to be a virgin, and the god was angered when Agamemnon took her as a concubine.[17]

Her cursed gift became an endless pain and frustration to her. She was seen as a liar and a madwoman by her family and by the Trojan people. Because of this, her father, Priam, had locked her away in a chamber and guarded her like the madwoman she was believed to be.[18] Though Cassandra made many predictions that went unheeded, the one prophecy that was believed was that of Paris being her abandoned brother.[19]

Ancient sources

File:Woodcut illustration of Cassandra's prophecy of the fall of Troy (at left) and her death (at right) - Penn Provenance Project.jpg
Woodcut illustration of Cassandra's prophecy of the fall of Troy (left) and her death (right), from Giovanni Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris, printed by Template:Interlanguage link at Ulm ca. 1474.

Cassandra appears in texts by Homer, Virgil, Aeschylus and Euripides. While details such as her parentage remain the same between accounts, each author depicts her prophetic powers differently.

Homer

Cassandra is mentioned in both the Iliad and the Odyssey. In the Iliad, she is named as the comeliest daughter of King Priam,[20] and a "peer of golden Aphrodite."[21] When her brother Hector was killed, she announced his death to the Trojan people so they could mourn and see his body as it was brought back into the city.[22]

In the Odyssey, Agamemnon's shade informs Odysseus of his death at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra; Cassandra was murdered as she stood next to him.[23]

Virgil

As the Aeneid takes place after Cassandra's death, she is mentioned by multiple characters but does not appear herself. Cassandra is mentioned prophesizing the fall of Troy[24] and Aeneas' journey to Italy.[25] In one scene, when Trojan soldiers saw the Greeks had kidnapped Cassandra from Minerva's temple and bound her in chains, they attempted to free her, but were quickly defeated.[26] Coroebus, who was in love with Cassandra, was the first to charge into battle. He died alongside Rhipeus, Dymas, and Hypanis.

Seneca the Younger

Likewise Seneca the Younger, in his play Agamemnon, has her prophesy why Agamemnon deserves his recorded death:

Quid me vocatis sospitem solam e meis, umbrae meorum? te sequor, tota pater Troia sepulte; frater, auxilium Phrygum terrorque Danaum, non ego antiquum decus video aut calentes ratibus ambustis manus, sed lacera membra et saucios vinclo gravi illos lacertos. te sequor… (Ag. 741–747)

Why do you call me, the lone survivor of my family, My shades? I follow you, father buried with all of Troy; Brother, bulwark of Trojans, terrorizer of Greeks, I do not see your beauty of old or hands warmed by burnt ships, But your lacerated limbs and those famous shoulders savaged By heavy chains. I follow you...[27]

This behavior is reflected in acts 4 and 5 as "her mantic vision" is "supplemented by a further (in)sight into what is going on inside the palace in act 5 when she becomes a quasi-messenger and provides a meticulous account of Agamemnon's murder in the bath: 'I see and I am there and I enjoy it, no false vision deceives my eyes: let's watch' (video et intersum et fruor, / imago visus dubia non fallit meos: / spectemus.)."[28]

Aeschylus

File:Terracotta Nolan neck-amphora (jar) MET DT369516.jpg
"Cassandra and Ajax" depicted on a terracotta amphora, circa 450 BC

In Aeschylus' Agamemnon, a play in the Oresteia trilogy, Cassandra has been taken by Agamemnon to Mycenae, where they are welcomed home by Clytemnestra and an entourage of servants. Agamemnon enters the palace after his wife but Cassandra remains outside in the chariot. There, Cassandra receives violent visions and prophesizes that Clytemnestra will murder Agamemnon; a crows watches on, but is unable to comprehend was she says.[29] In this version of the story, Clytemnestra waits until Agamemnon has gotten into the bath before she entangles him in a net and stabs him three times with a blade.[30] Cassandra, accepting her fate, walks into her inevitable offstage murder with full knowledge of what is to befall her.[31]Template:Rp[32]Template:Rp Clytemnestra announces that she murdered Cassandra to avenge her honor as a wife, as she was insulted that Agamemnon took a concubine.[33]

File:Ajax drags Cassandra from Palladium.jpg
Menelaus captures Helen in Troy, Ajax the Lesser drags Cassandra from Palladium before eyes of Priam, Roman mural from the Casa del Menandro, Pompeii

Mythology

Before the fall of Troy

Before the fall of Troy, Cassandra foresaw that if Paris went to Sparta and brought Helen back as his wife, her arrival would spark the Trojan War and lead to the destruction of the city. Ignoring Cassandra's warning, Paris went to Sparta and returned with Helen. While the people of Troy rejoiced, Cassandra was enraged; she furiously snatched Helen's golden veil off her head and tore at her hair.[19]

File:Aias und Kassandra (Tischbein).jpg
Ajax and Cassandra by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, 1806

In the Aeneid, Cassandra warned the Trojans about the Greeks hiding inside the Trojan Horse, Agamemnon's death, her own demise at the hands of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, her mother Hecuba's fate, Odysseus's ten-year wanderings before returning home, and the murder of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra by the latter's children Electra and Orestes.[24] Cassandra additionally predicted that her cousin Aeneas would escape during the fall of Troy and found a new nation in Rome.[25]

The sack of Troy

Coroebus and Othronus came to the aid of Troy during the Trojan War out of love for Cassandra and in exchange for her hand in marriage, but both were killed.[34] According to one account, Priam offered Cassandra to Telephus's son Eurypylus, in order to induce Eurypylus to fight on the side of the Trojans.[35] Cassandra was also the first to see the body of her brother Hector being brought back to the city.

File:Jérome Martin Langlois the Younger – Cassandra Imploring the Vengeance of Minerva against Ajax.jpeg
Cassandra imploring Athena for revenge against Ajax, by Jerome-Martin Langlois, 1810–1838.

In The Fall of Troy by Quintus Smyrnaeus, Cassandra attempted to warn the Trojan people that Greek warriors were hiding in the Trojan Horse while they were celebrating their victory over the Greeks with feasting. Disbelieving Cassandra, the Trojans resorted to calling her names and hurling insults at her. Attempting to prove herself right, Cassandra took an axe in one hand and a burning torch in the other, and ran towards the Trojan Horse, intent on destroying the Greeks herself, but the Trojans stopped her. The Greeks hiding inside the Horse were relieved, but alarmed by how clearly she had divined their plan.[36]

File:Solomon Ajax and Cassandra.jpg
Ajax and Cassandra by Solomon J. Solomon, 1886.

During the sack of the city, Cassandra sought shelter in the temple of Athena. There, she embraced the wooden statue of Athena in supplication for her protection, but was abducted and brutally raped by Ajax the Lesser. Cassandra clung so tightly to the statue of the goddess that Ajax knocked it from its stand as he dragged her away. Ajax's actions amounted to sacrilege, as he had defiled both the Athena's temple and a person under her protection.[37]

In Pseudo-Apollodorus' Epitome, Ajax's death comes at the hands of both Athena and Poseidon. Athena threw a thunderbolt at his ship, destroying it. Ajax made his way to safety on a rock, and declared that he had been saved in spite of Athena's intentions. However, Poseidon then split the rock with his trident, casting Ajax to his death. Eventually his body washed upon the shores of Myconos, where he was buried by Thetis.[38]

In some versions, Cassandra intentionally left a chest behind in Troy that would curse whichever Greek opened it first. Inside the chest was an image of Dionysus, made by Hephaestus and presented to the Trojans by Zeus. It was given to the Greek leader Eurypylus as a part of his share of the victory spoils of Troy. When he opened the chest and saw the image of the god, he went mad.[39]

The aftermath of Troy and Cassandra's death

Once Troy had fallen, Cassandra was taken as a pallake (concubine) by King Agamemnon of Mycenae. While he was away at war, Agamemnon's wife, Clytemnestra, had taken Aegisthus as her lover. When Cassandra and Agememnon returned to Mycenae, they were ambushed and murdered by Clytemnestra or Aegisthus.[40][41] In many tellings, Cassandra foresees her death and willingly accepts it.[42] Various sources state that Cassandra and Agamemnon had twin boys, Teledamus and Pelops, who were murdered by Aegisthus.[43]

File:Attic red-figure cup with Ajax and Cassandra Louvre G 458.jpg
Ajax taking Cassandra, tondo of a red-figure kylix by the Template:Interlanguage link, c. 440–430 BC, Louvre

The final resting place of Cassandra is either in Amyclae or Mycenae. Statues of Cassandra exist both in Amyclae and across the Peloponnese peninsula from Mycenae to Leuctra. In Mycenae, German business man and pioneer archeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered in Grave Circle A the graves of Cassandra and Agamemnon and telegraphed back to King George I of Greece:

With great joy I announce to Your Majesty that I have discovered the tombs which the tradition proclaimed by Pausanias indicates to be the graves of Agamemnon, Cassandra, Eurymedon and their companions, all slain at a banquet by Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthos.

However, it was later discovered that the graves predated the Trojan War by at least 300 years.[44]

See also

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References

Template:Reflist

Primary sources

Further reading

Template:Characters in the Iliad Template:Aeneid Template:Sister bar Template:Authority control

  1. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  2. ↑ Lycophron, Alexandra 30; Pausanias, 3.19, 3.26.
  3. ↑ Wilhelm Schulze, Kleine Schriften (1966), 698, J. B. Hoffmann, Glotta 28, 52
  4. ↑ Edgar Howard Sturtevant, Class. Phil. 21, 248ff.
  5. ↑ J. Davreux, La légende de la prophétesse Cassandre (Paris, 1942) 90ff.
  6. ↑ Albert Carnoy, Les ét. class. 22, 344
  7. ↑ R. S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. 654
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ Malalas, Chronography 5.106 Template:Webarchive
  10. ↑ Dares Phrygius, History of the Fall of Troy 12 Template:Webarchive
  11. ↑ Homer, Iliad, 13.361
  12. ↑ Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis, 751
  13. ↑ Apollodorus, Library, 3.12.5
  14. ↑ Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1208–1212.
  15. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  16. ↑ Apollodorus, Library, 1.9 Note 20
  17. ↑ Euripides, The Trojan Women, 1.40
  18. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  19. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  20. ↑ Homer, Iliad, 13.361
  21. ↑ Homer, Iliad, 24.677
  22. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  23. ↑ Homer, Odyssey, 11.404
  24. ↑ a b Virgil, Aeneid, 2.234
  25. ↑ a b Virgil, Aeneid, 3.147
  26. ↑ Virgil, Aeneid, 2.402
  27. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  28. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  29. ↑ Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 1107.
  30. ↑ Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 1372.
  31. ↑ Bernard Knox Word and Action: Essays on the Ancient theatre (Baltimore and London: Penguin) 1979
  32. ↑ Anne Lebeck, The Oresteia: A study in language and structure (Washington) 1971
  33. ↑ Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 1431.
  34. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  35. ↑ Dictys Cretensis 4.14 (Frazer, p. 95).
  36. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  37. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  38. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  39. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  40. ↑ Euripides, Electra, 1.
  41. ↑ Homer, Odyssey, 11.405-440.
  42. ↑ Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 1431.
  43. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  44. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
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