Cassandra byEvelyn 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[1]
InGreek mythology,Cassandra orCasandra (/kəˈsændrə/;[2]Ancient Greek:Κασ(σ)άνδρα,pronounced[kas:ándra], sometimes referred to asAlexandra;Ἀλεξάνδρα)[3] was aTrojan priestess dedicated to the godApollo and fated by him to utter trueprophecies but never to be believed. In modern usage her name is employed as a rhetorical device to indicate a person whose accurate predictions, generally of impending disaster, are not believed.
Hjalmar Frisk (Griechisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, 1960–1970) notes "unexplained etymology", citing "various hypotheses" found in Wilhelm Schulze,[4]Edgar Howard Sturtevant,[5] J. Davreux,[6] andAlbert Carnoy.[7]R. S. P. Beekes[8] cites García Ramón's derivation of the name from theProto-Indo-European root *(s)kend- "raise". The Online Etymology Dictionary states "though the second element looks like a fem. form of Greekandros "of man, male human being." Watkins suggests PIE*(s)kand- "to shine" as source of second element. The name also has been connected tokekasmai "to surpass, excel.[9]"
Cassandra was described by the chroniclerMalalas in his account of theChronography 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".[10] Meanwhile, in the account ofDares the Phrygian, she was illustrated as ". . .of moderate stature, round-mouthed, andauburn-haired. Her eyes flashed. She knew the future."[11] In theIliad,Homer described Cassandra as the fairest of all Priam's daughters.[12]
Woodcut illustration of Cassandra's prophecy of the fall of Troy (at left) and her death (at right), from anIncunable German translation by Heinrich Steinhöwel ofGiovanni Boccaccio'sDe mulieribus claris, printed byJohann Zainer [de] at Ulm ca. 1474."Cassandra and Ajax" depicted on a terracottaamphora,circa 450 BC
Cassandra appears in texts written byHomer,Virgil,Aeschylus andEuripides. 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 byAgamemnon as his slave mistress after the sack of Troy, and is killed byClytemnestra over Agamemnon's corpse after Clytemnestra murders him on his return home.[13]"
In Virgil's work, Cassandra appears in book two of his epic poem titledAeneid, with her powers of prophecy restored. In Book 2 of the Aeneid, unlike Homer, Virgil presents Cassandra as having fallen into a mantic state[14] and her prophecies reflect it.
LikewiseSeneca the Younger, in his playAgamemnon, 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...[14]
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.)[15]"
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:
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.[16]
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.
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.[18] Though Cassandra made many predictions that went unbelieved, the one prophecy that was believed was that of Paris being her abandoned brother.[19]
Before the fall of Troy took place, Cassandra foresaw that if Paris went toSparta and broughtHelen 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 goldenveil and tore at her hair.[19]
In Virgil's epic poem, the Aeneid, Cassandra warned the Trojans about the Greeks hiding inside theTrojan Horse,Agamemnon's death, her own demise at the hands ofAegisthus andClytemnestra, 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 childrenElectra andOrestes. Cassandra predicted that her cousinAeneas would escape during the fall of Troy and found a new nation in Rome.[20]
Coroebus andOthronus 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.[21] According to one account, Priam offered Cassandra toTelephus's sonEurypylus, in order to induce Eurypylus to fight on the side of the Trojans.[22] Cassandra was also the first to see the body of her brotherHector being brought back to the city.
InThe Fall of Troy, told byQuintus 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.[23]
At the fall of Troy, Cassandra sought shelter in the temple ofAthena. There she embraced the wooden statue of Athena in supplication for her protection, but was abducted and brutally raped byAjax 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.[24]
In Apollodorus chapter 6, section 6, Ajax's death comes at the hands of both Athena andPoseidon: "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 byThetis inMyconos".[25]
In some versions, Cassandra intentionally left a chest behind in Troy, with a curse on whichever Greek opened it first.[26] Inside the chest was an image ofDionysus, made byHephaestus and presented to the Trojans byZeus. It was given to the Greek leaderEurypylus 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.[26]
Once Troy had fallen, Cassandra was taken as apallake (concubine) byKing Agamemnon ofMycenae. While he was away at war, Agamemnon's wife,Clytemnestra, had takenAegisthus 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.[27]
The final resting place of Cassandra is either inAmyclae orMycenae. Statues of Cassandra exist both in Amyclae and across thePeloponnese peninsula from Mycenae toLeuctra. In Mycenae, German business man and pioneer archeologistHeinrich Schliemann discovered inGrave Circle A the graves of Cassandra and Agamemnon and telegraphed back to KingGeorge 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.[28]
The playAgamemnon from Aeschylus's trilogyOresteia depicts the king treading the scarlet cloth laid down for him, and walking offstage to his death.[29]: ln. 972 After the chorus's ode of foreboding, time is suspended in Cassandra's "mad scene".[30]: p. 11–16 She has been onstage, silent and ignored. Her madness that is unleashed now is not the physical torment of other characters inGreek tragedy, such as inEuripides'Heracles orSophocles'Ajax.
According to author Seth Schein, two further familiar descriptions of her madness are that ofHeracles inThe Women of Trachis orIo inPrometheus Bound.[30]: 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 herpsychic possession by Apollo,[29]: ln. 1140 witnessing past and future events. Schein says, "She evokes the same awe, horror and pity as doschizophrenics".[30]: p. 12 Cassandra is one of those "who often combine deep, true insight with utter helplessness, and who retreat into madness."
Eduard Fraenkel remarked[30]: p. 11, note 6 [31] 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 byClytemnestra with full knowledge of what is to befall her.[32]: pp. 42–55 [33]: pp. 52–58
^Harrington, Spencer P.M. (July–August 1999)."Behind the Mask of Agamemnon".Archaeological Institute of America.52.Archived from the original on 2013-03-17. Retrieved2021-12-01.
^abAgamemnon (play script) (in Greek).The chorus find her to be "crazed in mind and transported by a god"
^Fraenkel, Eduard (1964).Kleine Beiträge zur klassische Philologie (book). Storia e letteratura (in German). Vol. I. Rome.OCLC644504522.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Bernard KnoxWord and Action: Essays on the Ancient theatre (Baltimore and London: Penguin) 1979
^Anne Lebeck,The Oresteia: A study in language and structure (Washington) 1971
Patacsil, Par.Cassandra. InThe Likhaan Book of Plays 1997–2003. Villanueva and Nadera, eds. University of the Philippines Press (2006).ISBN971-542-507-0
Ukrainka, Lesya."Cassandra". Original Publication:Lesya Ukrainka. Life and work by Constantine Bida. Selected works, translated by Vera Rich. Toronto: Published for the Women's Council of the Ukrainian Canadian Committee by University of Toronto Press (1968). pp. 181–239
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