C is for Cassandra

Cassandra by Frederick Sandys

Cassandra was always one of my favorites, I not entirely sure why, its not that I liked her or emulated her, but she was. She was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. She was beautiful, considered equal in looks to beauties like Aphrodite and Helen, with red curly hair, blue eyes and a personality of all that is amiable and pleasing. Beautiful though she was she was driven quite mad by the curse placed on her by Apollo. The myths vary some in the reason for the curse some say she flat out refused to sleep with Apollo, some say it was because she promised to become Apollo's consort but then when the time came she denied him and in an even more varied version she spent the night at Apollos temple and as she slept his snakes licked her ears clean giving her the power to hear the future. I personally prefer the being cursed by a scorned lover.

by Evelyn de Morgan

Cassandra's curse that she could see the future but to never be believed and to forever be unable to alter it. She saw the fall of Troy, her brother Hector's death and the demise of Agamemnon and herself and though she warned them all her effort were for not. She was still abducted, raped and taken as a concubine by King Agamemnon of Mycenae and though she warned him of his wife's infidelity and of his death at the hand of his wife's lover she was still not believed and ultimately murdered along side Agamemnon by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.

What I think I always liked about Cassandra, was not her per se, but  the fact that the idea of her, her dilemma  and problem is so utterly entrenched in modern pop culture. In the DC comics The Sandman, the character Delirium has prophetic knowledge but is never understood until it is too late. In the first episode of the Television show Smallville there is an elderly character named Cassandra Carver who can see the future similarly in  Buffy The Vampire Slayer there is a character Cassie Newton who sees the future. Even in J.K Roling's Harry Potter series they make reference to the myth with The divination professor who is the great-great-granddaughter of the celebrated Seer Cassandra Trelawney. One can't forget the presence of the Cassandra myth even in music with the ABBA song "Cassandra." Her presence in modern pop culture is never very difficult to see, but its there. I think that's whey I always liked her, for a nobody, a insignificant character, a mortal in the great Greek mythic tradition she stands on her own. People know Cassandra was the one who foresaw the fall of troy, people know Casandra was the one with the gift of prophetic vision and the curse never to be believed  people know these things even when they don't necessarily know who cursed her, who killed her or even why Troy fell.

Fun fact: Apollo is just Apollo in both Roman and Greek mythology, unlike his Father who is either Jupiter or Zeus, depending on the tradition prescribed to.