Cassandra
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Cassandra
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Cassandra or Kassandra, also known as Alexandra, was a woman in Greek mythology cursed to utter prophecies that were true but that no one believed. In modern usage her name is employed as a rhetorical device to indicate someone whose accurate prophecies are not believed.
00002. Siblings: Hector · Helenus · Polyxena · Troilus · Laodice · Ilione · Polydorus of Troy · Lycaon of Troy · Polites
Cassandra was reputed to be a daughter of King Priam and of Queen Hecuba of Troy. The older and most common versions state that she was admired by the god Apollo, and he offered her the gift to see the future in order to win her heart. She promised to be his lover in return for his gift, but after receiving it, she went back on her word and refused him. Apollo, angered that she lied and deceived him, wanted to take back the powers he had already given. But since divine powers granted cannot be simply revoked, he placed a counter curse that though she would see the future accurately, nobody would ever believe her prophecies.
Some later versions have her falling asleep in a temple, where the snakes licked (or whispered in) her ears so that she could hear the future.[a]
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Etymology[edit]
Hjalmar Frisk (Griechisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, 1960–1970) notes "unexplained etymology", citing "various hypotheses" found in Wilhelm Schulze,[1] Edgar Howard Sturtevant,[2] J. Davreux,[3] and Albert Carnoy.[4] R. S. P. Beekes[5] cites García Ramón's derivation of the name from the Proto-Indo-European root *(s)kend- "raise".
Mythology[edit]
Biography[edit]
Woodcut illustration of Cassandra's prophecy of the fall of Troy (at left) and her death (at right), from an Incunable German translation by Heinrich Steinhöwel of Giovanni Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris, printed by Johann Zainer [de] at Ulm ca. 1474.
Cassandra was a princess of Troy, the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba and the fraternal twin sister of Helenus. According to legend, Cassandra had dark brown curly hair and dark brown eyes, and was both beautiful and clever, but considered insane.[6]
Gift of prophecy[edit]
Cassandra was given the gift of prophecy, but was also cursed by the god Apollo so that her accurate prophecies would not be believed. Many versions of the myth relate that she incurred the god's wrath by refusing him sex, after promising herself to him in exchange for the power of prophecy. In Aeschylus' Agamemnon, she bemoans her relationship with Apollo:
Apollo, Apollo!
God of all ways, but only Death's to me,
Once and again, O thou, Destroyer named,
Thou hast destroyed me, thou, my love of old!
God of all ways, but only Death's to me,
Once and again, O thou, Destroyer named,
Thou hast destroyed me, thou, my love of old!
And she acknowledges her fault
" I promised that [love] to Loxias [Apollo], but I broke my word. And ever since that fault I could persuade no one."[7]
Cassandra, daughter of the king and queen, in the temple of Apollo, exhausted from practising, is said to have fallen asleep; whom, when Apollo wished to embrace her, she did not afford the opportunity of her body. On account of which thing, when she prophesied true things, she was not believed.
In some versions of the myth, Apollo curses her by spitting into her mouth.
Cassandra had served as a priestess of Apollo and taken a sacred vow of chastity to remain a virgin for her entire life.[9]
Ajax the Lesser in Troy drags Cassandra from Palladium before eyes of Priam, Roman mural from the Casa del Menandro, Pompeii
Her cursed gift from Apollo became a source of endless pain and frustration to Cassandra. She was seen as a liar and a madwoman by her family and by the Trojan people. In some versions of the story, she was often locked up in a pyramidal building on the citadel on the orders of her father, King Priam. She was accompanied there by the wardress, who cared for her under orders to inform the King of all of his daughter's "prophetic utterances".[10]
According to legend, Cassandra had instructed her twin brother Helenus in the power of prophecy so he could be a prophet. Like her, Helenus was always correct whenever he had made his predictions, but unlike his sister, people believed him.
Cassandra made many predictions, and all of her prophecies were disbelieved except for one, when she foresaw who Paris was and proclaimed that he was her abandoned brother.[11] Cassandra foresaw that Paris’ abduction of Helen for his wife would bring about the Trojan War and warned Paris not to go to Sparta. Helenus echoed her prophecy, but his warnings were ignored.[11] Cassandra saw Helen coming into Troy when Paris returned home from Sparta. Cassandra furiously snatched away Helen's golden veil and tore at her hair, for she had foreseen that Helen's arrival would bring the calamities of the Trojan War and the destruction of Troy. The Trojan people, however, welcomed Helen into their city.[11]
Fall of Troy and aftermath[edit]
Cassandra foresaw the destruction of Troy. In various accounts of the war, she warned the Trojans about the Greeks hiding inside the Trojan Horse, Agamemnon's death, her own demise at the hands of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, her mother Hecuba's fate, Odysseus's ten-year wanderings before returning to his home, and the murder of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra by the latter's children Electra and Orestes. Cassandra predicted that her cousin Aeneas would escape during the fall of Troy and found a new nation in Rome.[12] However, she was unable to do anything to forestall these tragedies since no one believed her.[13]
Coroebus and Othronus came to the aid of Troy during the Trojan War out of love for Cassandra and in exchange for her hand in marriage, but both were killed.[10] According to one account, Priam offered Cassandra to Telephus’s son Eurypylus, in order to induce Eurypylus to fight on the side of the Trojans.[14] Cassandra was also the first to see the body of her brother Hector being brought back to the city.
In The Fall of Troy, told by Quintus Smyrnaeus, Cassandra had attempted to warn the Trojan people that Greek warriors were hiding in the Trojan Horse while they were celebrating their victory over the Greeks with feasting. They disbelieved her, calling her names and degrading her with insults.[15] She grabbed an axe in one hand and a burning torch in her other, and ran towards the Trojan Horse, intent on destroying it herself to stop the Greeks from destroying Troy. The Trojan people stopped her before she could do so. The Greeks hiding inside the Horse were relieved that the Trojans had stopped Cassandra from destroying it, but they were surprised by how clearly she had seen their plan to defeat Troy.[15]
At the fall of Troy, Cassandra sought shelter in the temple of Athena. There she embraced the wooden statue of Athena in supplication for her protection, but was abducted and brutally raped by Ajax the Lesser. Cassandra was clinging so tightly to the statue of the goddess that Ajax knocked it from its stand as he dragged her away.[11] One account claimed that even Athena, who had worked hard to help the Greeks destroy Troy, was not able to restrain her tears and her cheeks burned with anger. In one account, this caused her image to give forth a sound that shook the floor of the temple at the sight of Cassandra's rape, and her image turned its eyes away as Cassandra was violated, although others found this account too bold.[11] Ajax's actions were a sacrilege because Cassandra was a supplicant of Athena and supplicants were untouchable in the sanctuary of a god, being under the protection of that god. Furthermore, he committed another sacrilege by raping her inside the temple of Athena, despite it being strictly forbidden for people to have sexual intercourse in a temple.[16]
Cassandra puts herself under the protection of Pallas, Aimé Millet (1819-1891), Tuileries Garden, Paris
Odysseus insisted to the other Greek leaders that Ajax should be stoned to death for his crimes, which had enraged Athena and the other gods. Ajax avoided their wrath, because none of them dared to punish him after he clung, as a supplicant, to Athena's altar and swore an oath proclaiming his innocence.[11] Athena was furious at the Greeks' failure to punish Ajax for raping Cassandra in her temple, and she punished them severely with the help of Poseidon and Zeus. Poseidon sent storms and strong winds to destroy much of the Greek fleet on their way home from Troy. Athena punished Ajax herself, by causing him to have a terrible death, although the sources differ as to the manner of his death. The Locrians had to atone for Ajax's great sacrilege against Cassandra in Athena's temple by sending two maidens to Troy every year for a thousand years to serve as slaves in Athena's temple. However, if they were caught by the inhabitants before they reached the temple they were executed.[10]
In some versions, Cassandra intentionally left a chest behind in Troy, with a curse on whichever Greek opened it first.[11] Inside the chest was an image of Dionysus, made by Hephaestus and presented to the Trojans by Zeus. It was given to the Greek leader Eurypylus as a part of his share of the victory spoils of Troy. When he opened the chest and saw the image of the god, he went mad.[11]
Captivity and death[edit]
Cassandra was then taken as a pallake (concubine) by King Agamemnon of Mycenae. Unbeknown to Agamemnon, while he was away at war, his wife, Clytemnestra, had begun an affair with Aegisthus. Clytemnestra and Aegisthus then murdered both Agamemnon and Cassandra. Some sources mention that Cassandra and Agamemnon had twin boys, Teledamus and Pelops, both of whom were killed by Aegisthus.
Cassandra was sent to the Elysian Fields after her death, because her soul was judged worthy due to her dedication to the gods, and her religious nature during her life.[17]
Cassandra was buried either at Amyclae or Mycenae. The two towns disputed the possession of her grave.[10] Heinrich Schliemann was certain that he had discovered Cassandra’s tomb when he had excavated Mycenae, because he found the remains of a woman and two infants in one of the circle graves at Mycenae.[10]
Agamemnon by Aeschylus[edit]
Ajax taking Cassandra, tondo of a red-figure kylix by the Kodros Painter [el], c. 440–430 BC, Louvre
The play Agamemnon from Aeschylus's trilogy Oresteia depicts the king treading the scarlet cloth laid down for him, and walking offstage to his death.[18]:ln. 972 After the chorus's ode of foreboding, time is suspended in Cassandra's "mad scene".[19]:p. 11–16 She has been onstage, silent and ignored. Her madness that is unleashed now is not the physical torment of other characters in Greek tragedy, such as in Euripides' Heracles or Sophocles' Ajax.
According to author Seth Schein, two further familiar descriptions of her madness are that of Heracles in The Women of Trachis or Io in Prometheus Bound.[19]:p. 11 She speaks, disconnectedly and transcendent, in the grip of her psychic possession by Apollo,[18]:ln. 1140 witnessing past and future events. Schein says, "She evokes the same awe, horror and pity as do schizophrenics".[19]:p. 12 Cassandra is someone "who often combine deep, true insight with utter helplessness, and who retreat into madness."
Eduard Fraenkel remarked[19]:p. 11, note 6[20] on the powerful contrasts between declaimed and sung dialogue in this scene. The frightened and respectful chorus are unable to comprehend her. She goes to her inevitable offstage murder by Clytemnestra with full knowledge of what is to befall her.[21]:pp. 42–55[full citation needed][22]:pp. 52–58
Modern adaptations[edit]
Cassandra is an enduring archetype. Modern invocations of Cassandra are most frequently an example of a Cassandra complex. To emphasize such a situation, Cassandra's name is frequently used in fiction when prophecy comes up, especially true prophecy that is not believed. This can include the names of people, objects, or places.
Cassandra has been used as metaphor and allegory in psychological and philosophical tracts. For example, Florence Nightingale's book Suggestions for Thought to Searchers after Religious Truth has a section named for Cassandra, using her as a metaphor for the helplessness of women that she attributes to over-feminization (further examples are located on the Cassandra complex page).
The Cassandra myth itself has also been retold several times by modern authors of novels and dramatizations, including works by Eric Shanower, Lindsay Clarke, Christa Wolf, Lesya Ukrainka, Woody Allen, Marion Zimmer Bradley, David Gemmell, and Hector Berlioz. A number of songs have also referred to her, such as "Cassandra" (1982), by Swedish pop band ABBA.
See also[edit]
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Cassandra (metaphor)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Painting of Cassandra by Evelyn De Morgan
The Cassandra metaphor (variously labelled the Cassandra "syndrome", "complex", "phenomenon", "predicament", "dilemma", or "curse") occurs when valid warnings or concerns are dismissed or disbelieved.
The term originates in Greek mythology. Cassandra was a daughter of Priam, the King of Troy. Struck by her beauty, Apollo provided her with the gift of prophecy, but when Cassandra refused Apollo's romantic advances, he placed a curse ensuring that nobody would believe her warnings. Cassandra was left with the knowledge of future events, but could neither alter these events nor convince others of the validity of her predictions.
The metaphor has been applied in a variety of contexts, such as psychology, environmentalism, politics, science, cinema, the corporate world, and philosophy, and has been in circulation since at least 1949, when French philosopher Gaston Bachelard coined the term "Cassandra Complex" to refer to a belief that things could be known in advance.[1]
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Psychology[edit]
The Cassandra metaphor is applied by some psychologists to individuals who experience physical and emotional suffering as a result of distressing personal perceptions, and who are disbelieved when they attempt to share the cause of their suffering with others.
Melanie Klein[edit]
In 1963, psychologist Melanie Klein provided an interpretation of Cassandra as representing the human moral conscience whose main task is to issue warnings. Cassandra as moral conscience, "predicts ill to come and warns that punishment will follow and grief arise."[2] Cassandra's need to point out moral infringements and subsequent social consequences is driven by what Klein calls "the destructive influences of the cruel super-ego," which is represented in the Greek myth by the god Apollo, Cassandra's overlord and persecutor.[3] Klein's use of the metaphor centers on the moral nature of certain predictions, which tends to evoke in others "a refusal to believe what at the same time they know to be true, and expresses the universal tendency toward denial, [with] denial being a potent defence against persecutory anxiety and guilt."[2]
Laurie Layton Schapira[edit]
In a 1988 study, Jungian analyst Laurie Layton Schapira explored what she called the "Cassandra complex" in the lives of two of her analysands.[4]
Based on clinical experience, she delineates three factors constituting the Cassandra complex:
Layton Schapira views the Cassandra complex as resulting from a dysfunctional relationship with what she calls the "Apollo archetype", an archetype referring to any individual's or culture's pattern that is dedicated to, yet bound by, order, reason, intellect, truth, and clarity that disavows itself of anything occult or irrational.[5] The intellectual specialization of this archetype creates emotional distance and can predispose relationships to a lack of emotional reciprocity and consequent dysfunctions.[4] She further states that a "Cassandra woman" is very prone to hysteria because she "feels attacked not only from the outside world but also from within, especially from the body in the form of somatic, often gynaecological, complaints."[6]
What the Cassandra woman sees is something dark and painful that may not be apparent on the surface of things or that objective facts do not corroborate. She may envision a negative or unexpected outcome; or something which would be difficult to deal with; or a truth which others, especially authority figures, would not accept. In her frightened, ego-less state, the Cassandra woman may blurt out what she sees, perhaps with the unconscious hope that others might be able to make some sense of it. But to them her words sound meaningless, disconnected and blown out of all proportion.[6]
Jean Shinoda Bolen[edit]
In 1989, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, published an essay on the god Apollo[7] in which she detailed a psychological profile of the "Cassandra woman" whom she suggested referred to someone suffering—as happened in the mythological relationship between Cassandra and Apollo—a dysfunctional relationship with an "Apollo man." Bolen added that the Cassandra woman may exhibit "hysterical" overtones, and may be disbelieved when attempting to share what she knows.[8]
According to Bolen, the archetypes of Cassandra and Apollo are not gender-specific. She states that "women often find that a particular [male] god exists in them as well, just as I found that when I spoke about goddesses men could identify a part of themselves with a specific goddess. Gods and goddesses represent different qualities in the human psyche. The pantheon of Greek deities together, male and female, exist as archetypes in us all ... There are gods and goddesses in every person."[9]
"As an archetype, Apollo personifies the aspect of the personality that wants clear definitions, is drawn to master a skill, values order and harmony, and prefers to look at the surface rather than at what underlies appearances. The Apollo archetype favors thinking over feeling, distance over closeness, objective assessment over subjective intuition."[10]
Of what she describes as the negative Apollonic influence, Dr. Bolen writes:
Individuals who resemble Apollo have difficulties that are related to emotional distance, such as communication problems, and the inability to be intimate ... Rapport with another person is hard for the Apollo man. He prefers to access (or judge) the situation or the person from a distance, not knowing that he must "get close up"—be vulnerable and empathic—in order to truly know someone else ... But if the woman wants a deeper, more personal relationship, then there are difficulties ... she may become increasingly irrational or hysterical.[8]
Bolen suggests that a Cassandra woman (or man) may become increasingly hysterical and irrational when in a dysfunctional relationship with a negative Apollo, and may experience others' disbelief when describing her experiences.[8]
Corporate world[edit]
Foreseeing potential future directions for a corporation or company is sometimes called "visioning",[11]yet achieving a clear, shared vision in an organization is often difficult due to a lack of commitment to the new vision by some individuals in the organization, because it does not match reality as they see it. Those who support the new vision are termed "Cassandras"—able to see what is going to happen, but not believed.[11] Sometimes the name Cassandra is applied to those who can predict rises, falls, and particularly crashes on the global stock market, as happened with Warren Buffett, who repeatedly warned that the 1990s stock market surge was a bubble, attracting to him the title of the "Wall Street Cassandra".[12] Andy Grove, in his book Only The Paranoid Survive, reminds the reader of the Helpful Cassandras that sense the winds of change before others and are critical to managing through Strategic Inflection Points.[13][better source needed]
Environmental movement[edit]
Many environmentalists have predicted looming environmental catastrophes including climate change, rise in sea levels, irreversible pollution, and an impending collapse of ecosystems, including those of rainforests and ocean reefs.[14] Even though much of this has since come to pass, individuals sometimes acquire the label of 'Cassandras', whose warnings of impending environmental disaster are disbelieved or mocked.[14] Environmentalist Alan Atkisson wrote in 1999 that to understand that humanity is on a collision course with the laws of nature is to be stuck in what he calls the 'Cassandra dilemma' in which one can see the most likely outcome of current trends and can warn people about what is happening, but the vast majority cannot, or will not respond, and later if catastrophe occurs, they may even blame you, as if your prediction set the disaster in motion.[15] Occasionally there may be a "successful" alert, though the succession of books, campaigns, organizations, and personalities that we think of as the environmental movement has more generally fallen toward the opposite side of this dilemma: a failure to "get through" to the people and avert disaster. In the words of Atkisson: "too often we watch helplessly, as Cassandra did, while the soldiers emerge from the Trojan horse just as foreseen and wreak their predicted havoc. Worse, Cassandra's dilemma has seemed to grow more inescapable even as the chorus of Cassandras has grown larger."[16]
Other examples[edit]
There are examples of the Cassandra metaphor being applied in the contexts of medical science,[17][18] the media,[19] to feminist perspectives on reality,[20][21] and in politics.[22] There are also examples of the metaphor being used in popular music lyrics, such as the 1982 ABBA song "Cassandra",[23][24] Emmy the Great's "Cassandra", and Star One's "Cassandra Complex". The five-part The Mars Volta song "Cassandra Gemini" may reference this syndrome,[25] as well as the film 12 Monkeys or in Dead and Divine's "Cassandra Syndrome". The Ohio band Curse of Cassandra is named after the metaphor.
There are also distinct parallels to Old Testament prophets such as Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Amos - prophets who called attention to the failure of those who thought of themselves as God's people to forsake meaningless sacrifices and devote themselves to caring for "orphans and widows in their distress." The prophets called their societies to thereby honor God and avoid social / political disasters. Their "prophecies" were not well-received; Jeremiah, for example, being thrown into a deep well as well as put in wooden stocks.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
4. ^ Jump up to: a b c Schapira, Laurie Layton (1988). The Cassandra complex: living with disbelief: a modern perspective on hysteria. Toronto, Canada: Inner City Books. ISBN 091912335X.
5. ^ Laurie Layton Schapira, The Cassandra Complex: Living With Disbelief: A Modern Perspective on Hysteria p.10 (1988)
6. ^ Jump up to: a b Laurie Layton Schapira, The Cassandra Complex: Living With Disbelief: A Modern Perspective on Hysteria p.65 (1988)
8. ^ Jump up to: a b c Jean Shinoda Bolen, Gods in Everyman: A New Psychology of Men’s Lives and Loves pp. 130–160 (1989)
9. ^ Jean Shinoda Bolen, Gods in Everyman: A New Psychology of Men's Lives and Loves pp. x–xi (1989)
11. ^ Jump up to: a b Davies, P., "The Cassandra Complex: how to avoid generating a corporate vision that no one buys into" pp. 103–123 in Success in Sight: Visioning (1998)
14. ^ Jump up to: a b AtKisson, A., Believing Cassandra: An Optimist Looks at a Pessimist's World, Earthscan (1999)
16. ^ AtKisson, A., Believing Cassandra: An Optimist Looks at a Pessimist's World, p.22 pp. 32–33 (1999)
18. ^ Lantos, J.D., The Lazarus Case: Life-and-Death Issues in Neonatal Intensive Care, p.160 (2001)
20. ^ Eisenstein, L., 'The Cassandra Complex', pp. 37–41 in Haring-Smith, T., New Monologues For Women By Women – Vol II (2005)
21. ^ Delamotte, D., Women Imagine Change: A Global Anthology of Women's Resistance From 600 B.C.E. p.86 (1997)
24. ^ ABBA: 'Cassandra' recorded October 18, 1982 as the B-side of the single The Day Before You Came
25. ^ Fear Before the March of Flames, Taking Cassandra to the End of the World Party (song) on album The Always Open Mouth 2006
External links[edit]
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