Cassandra byEvelyn De Morgan (1898, London); Cassandra in front of the burning city ofTroy, depicted with disheveled hair denoting the insanity ascribed to her by the Trojans[1]
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.
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]Euripides wrote that she had golden hair and wore a crown oflaurels when prophesizing.[13]
Cassandra was given the gift of uttering true prophecies, but was cursed so that they would never be believed. Commonly, Cassandra incurredApollo's wrath by refusing him sexual favors after promising herself to him in exchange for the gift of prophecy.[14] InAeschylus'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.[15]
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.
However, other versions of the story have been given;Tzetzes wrote that Cassandra and her brotherHelenus 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.[17] Additionally,Euripides wrote that Apollo left Cassandra to be a virgin, and the god was angered whenAgamemnon took her as a concubine.[18]
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.[19] Though Cassandra made many predictions that went unheeded, the one prophecy that was believed was that ofParis being her abandoned brother.[20]
Cassandra appears in texts byHomer,Virgil,Aeschylus andEuripides. While details such as her parentage remain the same between accounts, each author depicts her prophetic powers differently.
Cassandra is mentioned in both theIliad and theOdyssey. In theIliad, she is named as the comeliest daughter of KingPriam,[21] and a "peer of goldenAphrodite."[22] 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.[23]
As theAeneid 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[25] and Aeneas' journey to Italy.[26] In one scene, when Trojan soldiers saw the Greeks had kidnapped Cassandra fromMinerva's temple and bound her in chains, they attempted to free her, but were quickly defeated.[27]Coroebus, who was in love with Cassandra, was the first to charge into battle. He died alongsideRhipeus,Dymas, and Hypanis.
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...[28]
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.)."[29]
"Cassandra and Ajax" depicted on a terracottaamphora,circa 450 BC
In Aeschylus'Agamemnon, a play in theOresteia trilogy, Cassandra has been taken byAgamemnon toMycenae, where they are welcomed home byClytemnestra 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.[30]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.[31] Cassandra, accepting her fate, walks into her inevitable offstage murder with full knowledge of what is to befall her.[32]: pp. 42–55 [33]: 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.[34]
Before the fall of Troy, Cassandra foresaw that ifParis went toSparta and broughtHelen 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 goldenveil off her head and tore at her hair.[20]
In theAeneid, Cassandra warned the Trojans about the Greeks hiding inside theTrojan Horse,Agamemnon's death, her own demise at the hands ofAegisthus andClytemnestra, her motherHecuba's fate,Odysseus's ten-year wanderings before returning home, and the murder ofAegisthus and Clytemnestra by the latter's childrenElectra andOrestes.[25] Cassandra additionally predicted that her cousinAeneas would escape during the fall of Troy and found a new nation in Rome.[26]
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.[35] According to one account, Priam offered Cassandra toTelephus's sonEurypylus, in order to induce Eurypylus to fight on the side of the Trojans.[36] Cassandra was also the first to see the body of her brotherHector being brought back to the city.
InThe Fall of Troy 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.[37]
During the sack of the city, 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. Ajax's actions amounted tosacrilege, as he had defiled both the Athena's temple and a person under her protection.[38]
In Pseudo-Apollodorus'Epitome, Ajax's death comes at the hands of both Athena andPoseidon. 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 ofMyconos, where he was buried byThetis.[39]
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 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.[40]
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. When Cassandra and Agememnon returned to Mycenae, they were ambushed and murdered by Clytemnestra or Aegisthus.[41][42] In many tellings, Cassandra foresees her death and willingly accepts it.[43] Various sources state that Cassandra and Agamemnon had twin boys, Teledamus and Pelops, who were murdered by Aegisthus.[44]
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.[45]
^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.
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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