Cassandra has been a character from mythology that has intrigued me for years. I can remember first properly understanding the heartbreaking nature of her tale during my teens when studying my Classics A Level, and she’s always stayed with me. I actually began putting this post together in the middle of 2019; life got in the way, but the more digging I did into what she has come to represent in modern psychology, the more fascinated I became. I may have gotten a little carried away, and so you're going to be getting 2 posts on our mysterious Seer! This one that you're currently reading is all about her story: her family tree, the circumstances that led to her fate, some of the most famous - and also lesser known - tales from history, and notes about my illustration of her along the way.
The second post is a review of 'The Cassandra Complex: Living with Disbelief'; a fascinating study by Laurie Layton Schapira all about what Cassandra, and by association Apollo, have come to represent in psychological terms and how they can be reflected in the behavior of humans in the present day. I’m really excited to share these with you; researching, illustrating and re-telling stories is something I’m so passionate about, and if you enjoy this please check out some of my other pieces like La Sayona, Selu and Oshun.
As always, all of my sources and references are linked at the end of this post, as well as in the Writing & Research Page on my website. You'll find them under 'C' for Cassandra. Make sure you're following my Instagram and Pinterest to see my inspirations and processes for creating posts like this - I update them every day so there’s always something to see!
A, hopefully, helpful family tree that I put together to illustrate a portion of Cassandra’s lineage. I found the original over on Myth Encyclopedia and condensed it to include the most relevant connections to the content in this post.
Cassandra was born into quite a prestigious family. The majority of family trees you'll find look similar to the one above, however it's likely that Cassandra had many, many siblings on account of the fact that King Priam, her father, is said to have sired around 100 children. You may recognise a few of her siblings: Paris is the very same man who, having plucked the Golden Apple, was always destined to fall madly in love with Helen and so bring about the destruction of Troy. Hector, husband of Andromache, faught bravely next to his brother.
The name Alexandra is also attributed to Cassandra, so you may be more familiar with her under that name. She is generally cited as the most beautiful of all her father's daughters, with dark curly brown hair and dark brown eyes - two features I made sure to keep in my illustration. She’s supposed to be clever, alluring and her purity and devotion to the deities were extremely attractive attributes. It’s unsurprising then that Cassandra caught the interest of mortal and immortal suitors alike; a common example can be found in that of Telephus, son of Heracles. He made his interest known to her, but she rejected him and ended up helping him to marry someone else.
From p.32 of ‘Greek and Roman Mythology A-Z’, Kathleen N. Daley and Marian Rengel, 2009.
Whilst some women actively sought out and coveted that kind of attention, Cassandra was always disinterested (for the most part at least). She is known for being devout; her unyielding faith in Athena, as well as towards Apollo when she served as a Priestess to him, has always received the highest reverence and stands in stark contrast to the way she is attacked once her story takes an unfair turn.
The deity responsible for this is none other than Apollo himself. In the most renowned version of the story, he is completely and utterly enamoured by Cassandra. He sets about seducing her and offers her a deal: in exchange for giving herself to him fully (A.K.A consummating their union), he would give her the sacred gift of prophecy. According to Greek Legends and Myths, Apollo was "particularly noted for dispensing the prophetic powers upon mortals." Intrigued, she accepts, however in the end she can't go through with it - different versions give different reasons which I plan on going into in the next post, but essentially she changes her mind and he is not happy. I imagine the tricky business of breaking a deal made with a human served to make him angrier; he couldn’t simply undo the deal, and so he cursed her prophetic ability: her predictions would be accurate, but no one would ever believe a word she said. Thus, for the rest of her life, Cassandra is never heard, listened to, or taken seriously - but she is always right: “The tension of continually speaking the truth to those who deny it was enough to drive Cassandra insane.” In some versions it is said that Cassandra taught Helenus, her twin brother, the art of prophecy and he, of course, was always believed.
Another rendition of the story is that, both Cassandra and Helenus received their prophetic abilities as babies when they were left in a temple of Apollo overnight. Two serpents emerged from the dark, slithered up to them and licked their ears. As unpleasant as that sounds, this act gave the twins the gift of prophecy because their ears were suddenly able to hear far more clearly. Apollo still curses Cassandra for spurning his advances, but this happens later on and, much like the previous version, her brother is always believed whilst she is ridiculed and dismissed.
Cassandra, Evelyn De Morgan
Part of the De Morgan Collection, painted in 1898. Oil on canvas. H1240 x W738 x D90mm. For more information, check out my Cassandra Highlight on my Instagram, as well as the links below.
So, what predictions did Cassandra make?
Some sources say that Cassandra first predicts the fall of Troy when Hecabe gives birth to Paris. She tells her mother that Paris must be killed before he brings about death and destruction to them all, but she isn’t listened to. In some versions, another one of her half-brothers, Aesacus, admits that he’s had the same vision. He is, of course, taken more seriously and is later given credit for the prophecy over Cassandra.
In other accounts, Cassandra foretells the destruction of Troy when Paris returns to the city with Helen. She is ignored and the events unfold accordingly.
One of the most famous stories involving Cassandra involves the iconic Trojan Horse. She tries to warn the Trojan soldiers about the Greeks hidden within the horse, but they think she’s crazy, ignore her, and the city is destroyed soon after.
Ajax and Cassandra, Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein.
Painted in 1806, oil on canvas. 232x177cm. For more information check out the links below.
The concluding part of Cassandra’s story is far from pleasant; it’s what makes her stand out so much in my mind and makes her unforgettable as a female character in a culture’s mythology. As Troy burns and falls around her, she seeks sanctuary in the Temple of Athena. Ajax the Lesser, a Greek soldier, finds her there clutching a wooden statue of the goddess, and rapes her. Ajax’s horrific treatment of Cassandra is made even more unacceptable by the fact that Cassandra was a supplicant of Athena’s and, apparently, untouchable. He also violates her within a temple, bringing about Athena’s full wrath and hatred, but that’s another story that takes a while to reach a satisfying conclusion.
Following that, Cassandra is offered little refuge as she is taken by Agamemnon as his concubine. She bears him twin sons, Pelops and Teledamus, and spends the majority of the journey warning him that if they return to Mycenae they will all meet an unpleasant fate. Of course, Agamemnon ignores her and dismisses her warnings as ramblings, and so on arriving in Mycenae they are killed by Clytemnestra, Agamemnon’s wife, and her lover, Aegisthus. On a side note, I’d really recommend reading Agamemnon because it’s a fantastic play that really captures the tragedy of this perfectly.
There is a less common narrative in which Cassandra, Helenus, Hecabe and Andromache are spared and set free by Agamemnon. According to this tale, they make a new home in Thracian Chersonese (in the Gallipoli Peninsula). It’s a nice thought, and I’d love to believe that Cassandra had the opportunity to experience some semblance of peace at some point in her adult life, but the nature of her story is so tragic it’s hard to buy into this idea.
And so concludes our exploration into the background of Cassandra - I hope you found it useful and interesting. More than anything, I hope it helps to give you some more context to my illustration of her. I chose to go with something that makes people a little uncomfortable, but also makes you want to keep looking, because I think it reflects her story so well. There’s obviously a lot of blood, but I purposefully didn’t give her any physical wounds because I wanted the splatters to represent her internal anguish. She’s bound and suspended in mid-air to add a darker side to the magical gift of prophecy she was granted; a little like representing two sides of the same coin. But her eyes are what I based the entire piece around: I wanted them to be carved out and floating around her - close enough for her to grab if she wasn’t tied up. It’s supposed to be desperate, but also eerily peaceful, and I hope that comes across.
As always, please let me know your thoughts in the comments - I’d love to hear what you think, particularly if you have a source I should check out or if you think I’ve missed anything!
Sources and Links:
https://www.greeklegendsandmyths.com/cassandra.html
http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Wa-Z/Family-Trees-and-Leading-Figures-in-World-Mythology.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6G2y35nUnc - video on Cassandra and Apollo
https://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/jeffers/classical.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassandra
https://100witches.tumblr.com/post/177704442698/99-cassandra-from-greek-mythology-cassandra-is
'Greek and Roman Mythology A-Z', Kathleen N. Daley and Marian Rengel, 2009
https://www.ontheissuesmagazine.com/2011summer/cafe2.php?id=163