Cassandra

In Greek mythology, Cassandra (Greek: Κασσάνδρα, "she who entangles men",^[1] also known as Alexandra^[2]) was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. Her beauty caused Apollo to grant her the gift of prophecy. In an alternative version, she spent a night at Apollo's temple, at which time the temple snakes licked her ears clean so that she was able to hear the future. This is a recurring theme in Greek mythology, though sometimes it brings an ability to understand the language of animals rather than an ability to know the future.^[3] However, when she did not return his love, Apollo placed a curse on her so that no one would ever believe her predictions. She is a figure both of the epic tradition and of tragedy, where her combination of deep understanding and powerlessness exemplify the tragic condition of humankind.

History

Ajax and Cassandra by Solomon Joseph Solomon, 1886.

Apollo's cursed gift became a source of endless pain and frustration. In some versions of the myth, this is symbolized by the god spitting into her mouth; in other Greek versions, this act was sufficient to remove the gift so recently given by Apollo, but Cassandra's case varies. From Aeschylus' Agamemnon, it appears that she has made a promise to Apollo to become his consort, but broke it, thus incurring his wrath: though she has retained the power of foresight, no one will believe her predictions.

While Cassandra foresaw the destruction of Troy (she warned the Trojans about the Trojan Horse, the death of Agamemnon, and her own demise), she was unable to do anything to forestall these tragedies since they did not believe her.

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

At the fall of Troy, she sought shelter in the temple of Athena, where she was violently abducted and raped by Ajax the Lesser. Cassandra was then taken as a concubine by King Agamemnon of Mycenae. Unbeknownst to Agamemnon, while he was away at war, his wife, Clytemnestra, had begun an affair with Aegisthus. Clytemnestra and Aegisthus then murdered both Agamemnon and Cassandra. Some sources mention that Cassandra and Agamemnon had twin boys, Teledamus and Pelops, both of whom were killed by Aegisthus.

Telephus, the son of Heracles, loved Cassandra but she scorned him and instead helped him seduce her sister Laodice.

In Aeschylus' Agamemnon

In Aeschylus' Agamemnon, Agamemnon, treading the scarlet cloth laid down for him, walks offstage to his sure death at line 972. After the chorus's ode of foreboding, time is suspended in Cassandra's "mad scene", which does nothing to advance the action in any way.^[4] 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,^[5] but she speaks, disconnectedly and transcendent, in the grip of her psychic possession by Apollo,^[6] witnessing events past and future. "She evokes the same awe, horror and pity as do schizophrenics", an observer^[7] has noted, "who often combine deep, true insight with utter helplessness, and who retreat into madness." Eduard Fraenkel remarked^[8] 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.^[9]

Greek and Latin sources

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

Modern adaptations

Painting by Evelyn De Morgan.

A modern psychological perspective on Cassandra is presented by Eric Shanower in Age of Bronze: Sacrifice. In this version, Cassandra, as a child, is molested by a man pretending to be a god.

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

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

Ajax taking Cassandra, tondo of a red-figure kylix by the Kodros Painter, ca. 440-430 BC, Louvre

Author William Faulkner, in his novel Absalom, Absalom!, writes of Rosa Coldfield, a principal character in the Sutpen Dynasty/Tragedy, and how her "childhood ... consisted of a Cassandra-like listening beyond closed doors", alluding to both mythological concerns that (1) Cassandra was locked away, or behind closed doors (as with Rosa's youth), and (2) that Cassandra's prophecies were true, yet fated to be ignored (as with Rosa's premonitions about Thomas Sutpen and his desire to forge a dynasty).

The author Marion Zimmer Bradley wrote a historical novel called Firebrand, which presents a story from Cassandra's point of view. Marcus Sedgwick's novel The Foreshadowing features a protagonist named Alexandra who has the gift of foresight, though she sees mainly others' pain and death.

In Clemence McLearn's Inside the Walls of Troy, Cassandra has a strong friendship with Queen Helen of Sparta when she came to Troy with Prince Paris. Cassandra essentially hates Helen but gives in to her unbearable joy and happiness and becomes Helen's "confidante". At the end of the story instead of Cassandra being raped and taken as Agamemnon's "battle prize", she simply joins her two sisters, Polyxena and Laodice, at the temple of Athena. The rest of her story is left untold.

In David Gemmell's Troy trilogy, Cassandra is credited with opening the mind of exiled Egyptian prince Gershom (Moses) to his own gift of prophecy. Cassandra got her gift after suffering from 'brain fever' as a young child, and dies in the volcanic eruption of Thera.

In the section Cassandra of Suggestions for Thought to Searchers after Religious Truth, Florence Nightingale protests the over-feminization of women into near helplessness, such as what Nightingale saw in her mother's and older sister's lethargic lifestyle despite their education. The work also reflects her fear of her ideas being ineffective, as were Cassandra's.

In Hercules: The Animated Series (presented by Disney), Hercules befriends Icarus and Cassandra at his local high school.

Modern usage

In more modern literature, Cassandra has often served as a model for tragedy and Romance, and has given rise to the archetypal character of someone whose prophetic insight is obscured by insanity, turning their revelations into riddles or disjointed statements that are not fully comprehended until after the fact. Notable examples are the character of River Tam from the science fiction TV series Firefly, the character Cassandra in the TV series The X-Files (an alien abductee that nobody took seriously), and the science fiction short story "Cassandra" by C. J. Cherryh.

Syrigx's demo EP cover "The Cassandra Syndrome"

Literature

In both the novel "Rumble Fish" by S.E. Hinton and the 1983 film by the same title directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Cassandra is mentioned. The character Cassandra tells Rusty-James that she isn't hooked on heroin and will stop using it though she had been using for a short time. Like the mythological character, nobody believes her. Rusty-James asks his brother if he believes that she will get clean. His brother says "You have to believe Cassandra." When he inquires as to what will happen to people who don't believe her, their father says, "The Greeks will get them." This is a direct reference to the Greek Mythology. In the end Cassandra does stop using heroin and goes back to her job as a substitute teacher. Cassandra in "Rumble Fish" is modeled after the mythological Cassandra in that she predicts the future, is not believed, yet her prediction comes true.

In the Harry Potter series, Cassandra is the great great great great granddaughter of Sybill Trelawney who is considered a fraud and creates two true prophecies.

Television

"Cassandra" is the title of an episode of the British sci-fi comedy series Red Dwarf. In it a futuristic computer, Cassandra, is discovered to have the ability to predict the future. She foretells a number of conversations and events that come true, save for one scene where one character kills another in a jealous rage. It emerges this is a lie to try to punish the killer for his responsibility for her own later death, which Cassandra correctly predicts he accidentally causes. The story in the episode deviates somewhat from myth in that she is not universally disbelieved. The theme of the futility of trying to change the future is explored at several points in the episode.

In "Help," an episode of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a young girl named Cassandra "Cassie" Newton foresees her own death despite the attempts of the show's protagonist, Buffy Summers, to prevent it. She also foresees what will happen in Buffy's final battle with one of the show's antagonists, The First, and its army.

In the episode "Hourglass" of the sci-fi series Smallville, the plot revolves around an old people's home where one of the residents who was blinded on the day of the meteor shower, Cassandra Carver, can apparently see the future. She also makes reference to the story of Troy when mentioning to Lex Luthor, who had brought her a bunch of flowers, that "It was the Greeks who also brought gifts." The resident also sees Lex's future and his ascendancy to the US Presidency.

The Cassandra syndrome is a fictional condition that describes someone who believes they can see the future but cannot do anything about it. Comic writer Chris Claremont used this syndrome as the motivation for the villainous actions of mutant terrorists Mystique and Destiny, the latter being a blind precognitive, whose attempts to prevent the destruction of the mutant race at the hands of humanity often lead to further anti-mutant hysteria.

Music

Norwegian gothic metal pioneers Theatre of Tragedy wrote a song about Cassandra on their 1998 album Aégis.

German power metal group Blind Guardian featured two songs about Cassandra and the Trojan War on their 2002 album A Night at the Opera, "Under the Ice" and "And Then There Was Silence", the latter of which was the title track of the 2001 "warmup" single for the album.

The musical group ABBA released a song titled "Cassandra" as a B-side to the single, "The Day Before You Came" at the very end of their time as an active group. Anni-Frid Lyngstad has the lead vocal and sings about Cassandra's departure from a town after some unnamed disasters have occurred and her own regret about not believing Cassandra's warnings. The song has been included in subsequent compilation CD releases.

Film

The title of the 1977 film The Cassandra Crossing refers to a fictional, unstable bridge in Europe named after Cassandra, with a group of quarantined passengers en route to the bridge against their will.

In the film The Scorpion King, Cassandra is a sorceress who can read the future and is key to the antagonist king's (Memnon) battle victories. Memnon is in love with her, but she eventually leaves him for Mathayus, the protagonist. At first, she claims to lose her foreseeing abilities when sleeping with a man, but it is later revealed, after an intimate night with Mathayus and pretending to lose her abilities, that this was merely pretense to prevent Memnon from taking advantage of her. Cassandra is played by Kelly Hu.

In Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite, which features several appearances by classical Greek figures, Cassandra appears warning Allen's character not to move to the countryside. As usual, she is not listened to. She makes a later appearances, delivering the following line: "I see disaster. I see catastrophe. Worse, I see lawyers!" She is played by Danielle Ferland. In his 2007 movie Cassandra's Dream the main characters' boat is called "Cassandra's Dream". During the movie many characters have bad dreams. The final sequence is on board the boat.

The show Hercules: The Animated Series depicts Cassandra (voiced by Sandra Bernhard) as a rather goth teenager who has visions of awful things and is loved by Icarus.

The plight of Cassandra was a recurring motif in the 1995 film Twelve Monkeys.

In the upcoming movie 2012, the character played by Woody Harrelson is a man who prophesies the end of the world and is considered crazy by others. Harrelson compared his character to the mythological Greek figure Cassandra, whose predictions were dismissed.^[10]

See also

• Cassandra (metaphor)
• Apollo
• Apollo archetype
• Novikov Self-Consistency Principle

References

Further reading

• Clarke, Lindsay. The Return from Troy. HarperCollins (2005). ISBN 0-00-715027-X.
• Marion Zimmer Bradley. The Firebrand. ISBN 0-451-45924-5
• Patacsil, Par. Cassandra. In The Likhaan Book of Plays 1997-2003. Villanueva and Nadera, eds. University of the Philippines Press (2006). ISBN 971-542-507-0
• Schapira, Laurie L. The Cassandra Complex: Living with Disbelief: A Modern Perspective on Hysteria. Toronto: Inner City Books (1988). ISBN 0-919123-35-X. (This work is mentioned in the Cassandra (Metaphor) page in the Wiki.)

Primary sources

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cassandra

• Virgil, Aeneid II.246-247, 341-346, 403-408
• Theoi Project: Cassandra, classical sources in English translation