Right: In the late 19th century sculptor Max Klinger created this striking statue of Cassandra by using a combination of marble and alabaster. Her piercing eyes of amber suggest her visionary powers.
Cassandra was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. She was given the gift of seeing the future by the god Apollo. However, when she angered the god, he turned the blessing into a curse, decreeing that no one would ever believe her prophesies.
According to the most common version of the myth of Cassandra, Apollo first set eyes on the princess when she fell asleep in his temple. Cassandra was very beautiful, and the god immediately fell in love with her. In an attempt to seduce her, Apollo gave her the gift of prophecy. However, although Cassandra accepted the gift, she refused the god’s advances. Apollo was outraged and decided to punish her. The god persuaded Cassandra to give him just a single kiss, during which he planted a curse in the young woman’s mouth. Although Cassandra would be able to predict the future, nobody would ever believe her prophecies.
Most of Cassandra’s prophecies concerned the Trojan War, the 10-year struggle between Troy and Greece prompted by the Trojan prince Paris’s abduction of the Spartan queen Helen. Paris was Cassandra’s younger brother, but when he was born she implored her father to kill the baby because she had a premonition that he would lead to the city’s fall. Priam did not take his
Daughter’s advice. Instead he ordered that Paris be taken into the wilderness and abandoned.
World History
