Cassandra

Also known as: CAS. / CASSANDRA / Cass / Cass. · Family: Troy · Role: daughter of Priam · First appears: Aeschylus, Agamemnon — Scene 1

Cassandra, daughter of Priam, follows Agamemnon as a captured bondslave and spoil of war, taken as his concubine and chosen captive after Troy’s fall. Clytemnestra orders her from the chariot into the house, saying, “From us thou hast what usage doth prescribe.” Cassandra leaves wailing, then reveals that Clytemnestra is plotting against Agamemnon and prophesies that she will strike him after bathing him: “Who shares in working death.”

Apollo made Cassandra a seer, but after she broke her vow to him, mortals rejected her prophecies. She foretells that a woman will murder the returning master, predicts Odysseus’ disastrous return, and enters the palace knowing she will die beside Agamemnon; the two are later found dead there. In another account, Apollo’s inspired virgin is violently taken by Agamemnon as a bride, while Cassandra declares that the marriage will bring his death and ruin the house of Atreus.

Before Troy’s fall, Cassandra warned that the newborn Paris should be killed because Priam’s empire would otherwise be betrayed, but the princes ignored her. Hecuba mourns Cassandra as her daughter and sees her torn away, while Cassandra is also named alongside Hector and Polyxena among the children lost through Troy’s destruction.