Cassandra

Cassandra, in Greek mythology the daughter of Priam, the last king of Troy, and his wife Hecuba. She was also known as Alexandra. She and her twin brother, Helenus, had prophetic abilities, but Cassandra, unlike Helenus, was a tragic figure who was fated never to be believed. She accurately predicted such events as the fall of Troy and the death of Agamemnon, but her warnings went unheeded. In Homer’s Iliad she is the most beautiful of Priam’s daughters but not a prophetess.

According to Aeschylus’s tragedy Agamemnon, Cassandra was loved by the god Apollo, who promised her the power of divination if she would comply with his desires. Cassandra accepted the proposal, received the gift, and then refused the god her favors. Apollo revenged himself by ordaining that her prophecies should never be believed. In a separate account, Cassandra and Helenus received the gift of prophecy as infants, when they were left in a temple to Apollo and two snakes appeared and licked their ears, granting them the ability to prophesize. Later, Cassandra’s rejection of Apollo resulted in her predictions being dismissed.

During the sack of Troy, Ajax the Lesser dragged Cassandra from the altar of Athena and raped her. For this impiety Athena sent a storm that sank most of the Greek fleet as it returned home. The rape of Cassandra by Ajax was a scene frequently depicted in Greek art.

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From Athena to Zeus: Basics of Greek Mythology

In the distribution of the spoils after the capture of Troy, Cassandra fell to Agamemnon and returned with him to Greece. They landed in Argolis, where Agamemnon’s cousin, Aegisthus, lived. Unbeknownst to Agamemnon, his wife, Clytemnestra, had been seduced by Aegisthus in his absence. Cassandra’s warnings to Agamemnon were ignored, as ever, and the pair was murdered by Aegisthus and Clytemnestra. In Homer’s Odyssey the specter of Agamemnon related their gruesome fate to Odysseus, who had descended into the underworld during his wanderings between Troy and Ithaca.

In a different version Cassandra did not accompany Agamemnon to her death. Instead, she was given her liberty by him after the sack of Troy, as were Helenus, Hecuba, and Andromache (wife of Cassandra’s slain brother, Hector). They spent the rest of their lives in Thracian Chersonese (identified with the Gallipoli peninsula in modern Turkey).