- Ray

The Story of Cassandra from Greek Mythology (as told by Mark Woon, Princeton University):

Also known as Alexandra. The daughter of Priam and Hecuba; she was very beautiful, although her family and the people of Troy considered her a little unbalanced because of her gift of prophecy. It is popularly believed that she received the gift of prophesy when Cassandra and her brother Helenus was left overnight at a temple of Apollo when they were children. The next day, serpents were discovered wreathed around their bodies licking their ears, which gave them the power to see into the future. However, when she later rejected the advances of Apollo, he added to the gift the fate that she would never be believed. Another version of this myth tells of how she refused to sleep with Apollo until he gave her the gift of prophesy. When Apollo agreed to this, she reneged and refused his advances. In return, Apollo asked for one kiss. When Cassandra agreed, he spat into her mouth, cursing her so that no one would ever believe any of her prophesies. In any case, this curse failed to be effective on only one occasion. When Paris appeared as an adult at the court of Priam, Cassandra declared him her brother. It had been accepted by everyone that he had died in infancy from being exposed.

After the Trojan War began, Cassandra continued to predict the calamities in store for the Trojans. Nobody believed her, and deciding that her prophecies were bringing bad luck to the war effort, Priam concealed her in a locked chamber, where she was guarded like a madwoman. Even so, she was still highly regarded for her beauty. During the war, both Othryoneus of Cabesus and Coroebus, son of Mydon, asked for her hand, but both were killed in the war. When Telephus reinforced the Trojans with an army of Mysians, Priam betrothed Cassandra to his son Eurypylus, but he too was killed. Cassandra's curse of not being heeded came to a climax when she announced that there were men in the wooden horse. As usual, her words fell on deaf ears. Only Laocoon believed her, but he was soon silenced, and this seemed to confirm that Cassandra was merely raving again.

During the sack of Troy, Cassandra sought sanctuary at the temple of Athena and embraced the statue of the goddess as a suppliant. Ajax the Locrian, son of Oileus, found her there and, violating one of the strongest interdicts in ancient religion, dragged her from the temple. Some say he raped her in the sanctuary, some way without. Cassandra never learned that he later paid the ultimate price for his short pleasure.

When the spoils of Troy were allotted, Cassandra was given to Agamemnon. Some said he had spread the report that Ajax had raped her so he could have her to himself. Others say he tried to save Cassandra's sister, Polyxena, from being sacrificed on Achilles' grave, again to ingratiate himself with Cassandra. Agamemnon took her back to Mycenae, but she was scarcely in his hands before he forced her into sexual relations. As a result of this union she became pregnant and bore twins - Teledamus and Pelops. This poses a question: the trip to Mycenae could not in Agamemnon's case have taken a great deal of time since, unlike several of the other Greeks, he had no difficulties in reaching home. Therefore, he must have stayed in Troy for a few more months as leader of the Greek army of occupation. Even adding a month or so for the voyage, he must have taken the better part of a year in getting to Mycenae. There is the possibility that the twins were born on shipboard or even after arrival in Mycenae, but all accounts seem to suggest that Cassandra arrived with babies.

Agamemnon, expecting to arrive home in glory, was murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus, shortly after his arrival. Cassandra was murdered by Clytemnestra, and the twins by Aegisthus. Agamemnon's bringing her back with him is repeated often as a principal motive for his death, but Clytemnestra had reasons enough without Cassandra. Some say that the murders took place at Amyclae, although nobody gives a reason. This claim allowed the Amyclaeans to say that Cassandra was buried there. She also had a statue at Amyclae and at Leuctra in Laconia. Mycenae, however, had the best reason for saying her tomb was there, and Schliemann, the archaeologist, was certain of this when he found the remains of a woman and two infants in one of the circle graves at Mycenae.

In Aeschylus' play, Agamemnon, she foresees her own death, yet her audience, the chorus, does not believe her. The curse of Apollo remains with Cassandra to the end, as Clytemnestra soon kills her as she had prophesied.

The story of Cassandra is one of the most poignant of all the stories of women in the Trojan War. Possessing the divine gift of prophecy carried with it an obligation, and the principal responsibility would have been the protection of homeland and the whole Trojan race. Not being taken seriously would have been frustrating and heartbreaking enough under any circumstances, but with the safety of a whole nation at stake, Cassandra must occasionally have approached the borders of the insanity with which she was labeled. It is not difficult to think of her as a beautiful but disheveled young woman, wild-eyed and shrill. We cannot be sure that along with everything else, she might not have developed a reputation for being obnoxious with her superior knowledge. The tendency is to regard her as a victim of circumstances, someone severely wronged by men and gods alike. Her tragedy was knowing the unhappy truth and revealing it, something as unwelcome then as it is now.

References Pausanias 2.16.5, 3.19.5, 26.3, 10.27.1; Hyginus, Fables 93; Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1207, 1260; Apollodorus 3.12.5; Homer, Iliad 24.700, 13.363, Odyssey 11.420; Eustathius on Homer's Iliad 663; Virgil, Aeneid 2.344, 2.425; Servius on Virgil's Aeneid 2.247.