20 Facts About Cassandra

Cassandra was a daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy.

In other sources, such as Hyginus and Pseudo-Apollodorus, Cassandra broke no promise to Apollo but rather the power of foresight was given to her as an enticement to enter into a romantic engagement, the curse being added only when it failed to produce the result desired by the god.

Cassandra was described by the chronicler Malalas in his account of the Chronography 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".

Cassandra was one of the many children born to the king and queen of Troy, Priam and Hecuba.

Cassandra's is the fraternal twin sister of Helenus, as well as the sister to Hector and Paris.

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One of the oldest and common versions of her myth states that Cassandra was admired for her beauty and intelligence by the god Apollo, who sought to win her with the gift to see the future.

Cassandra appears in texts written by Homer, Virgil, Aeschylus and Euripides.

In Virgil's work, Cassandra appears in book two of his epic poem titled Aeneid, with her powers of prophecy restored.

Unlike Homer, Virgil presents Cassandra as having fallen into a mantic state and her prophecies reflect it.

Cassandra was given the gift of prophecy, but was cursed by the god Apollo so that her true prophecies would not be believed.

Cassandra predicted that her cousin Aeneas would escape during the fall of Troy and found a new nation in Rome.

Cassandra was the first to see the body of her brother Hector being brought back to the city.

Cassandra clung so tightly to the statue of the goddess that Ajax knocked it from its stand as he dragged her away.

The actions of Ajax were a sacrilege because Cassandra was a supplicant at the sanctuary, and under the protection of the goddess Athena and Ajax further defiled the temple by raping Cassandra.

In some versions, Cassandra intentionally left a chest behind in Troy, with a curse on whichever Greek opened it first.

Once Troy had fallen, Cassandra was taken as a pallake by King Agamemnon of Mycenae.

Statues of Cassandra exist both in Amyclae and across the Peleponnese peninsula from Mycenae in Leuctra.

Cassandra's speaks, disconnectedly and transcendent, in the grip of her psychic possession by Apollo, witnessing past and future events.

Cassandra is one of those "who often combine deep, true insight with utter helplessness, and who retreat into madness.

Cassandra's goes to her inevitable offstage murder by Clytemnestra with full knowledge of what is to befall her.