Search Britannica Kassandra (Greek: Κασσάνδρα), was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy, and the fraternal twin sister of Helenus.
Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox.Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Unbeknownst to Agamemnon, while he was away at war, his wife, Clytemnestra, had begun an affair with Aegisthus. Features Cassandra was then taken as a concubine by King Agamemnon of Mycenae.
Cassandra was seen as a liar and a madwoman by her family and by the Trojan people. At the fall of Troy, Cassandra sought shelter in the temple of Athena and there she embraced the wooden statue of Athena in supplication for her protection, where she was abducted and brutally raped by Ajax the Lesser. Cassandra predicted that her cousin Aeneas would escape during the fall of Troy and found a new nation in Rome. Cassandra, in Greek mythology, the daughter of Priam, the last king of Troy, and his wife Hecuba. Some sources mention that Cassandra and Categories Cassandra (Greek mythology) A prophetess who was daughter of King Priam of Troy and his queen Hecuba.She captured the eye of Apollo and was granted the ability to see the future; however, she was destined never to be believed.. 1897, Michael Clarke, The Story of Troy, page 30 And so when Cassandra foretold the evils that were to come upon Troy, even her own people would … Like her, Helenus was always correct whenever he had made his predictions; but unlike his sister, people believed him. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Clytemnestra and Aegisthus then murdered both Agamemnon and Cassandra the minute they came home. In some versions of the story, she was often locked up in a pyramidal building on the citadel on her father King Priam's orders. This story is normally ascribed to Aesacus alone.
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".
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Cassandra, in Greek mythology, was the daughter of Priam, the king who reigned Troy when the Greeks attacked it. Some ancient sources tell of how Cassandra predicted the destruction of Troy when Paris was born to Hecabe, and told how her new-born brother should be put to death, the prophecy though was only listened to when Cassandra’s half-brother, Aesacus said the same thing. Kassandra foresaw the destruction of Troy. She warned the Trojans about the Greeks hiding inside the Trojan Horse, Agamemnon's death and 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 her children Electra and Orestes. Pernak Cassandra, statue at the Flower Garden of Kroměříž, Cz.Rep.This article was most recently revised and updated by
Her curse was that no one believed her, a fact that weighed heavily on the destruction of Troy during the Trojan War. She was driven truly insane by this in the versions where she was incarcerated; though in the versions where she was not, she was usually viewed as being simply misunderstood. She punished Ajax herself by causing him to have a terrible death though the sources of his death differ. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
Kassandra was clinging so tightly to the statue of the goddess that Ajax knocked it over from its stand as he dragged her away. In Greek mythology, Cassandra was one of the princesses of Troy, daughter of Priam and Hecuba. Cassandra comes to prominence in Greek mythology because of events at Troy.
Cassandra was such a beautiful woman that she attracted the attention of the god Apollo, the son of Zeus. He gave her the gift of prophecy as a love gift, … King Priam (Priamos) and Queen Hekabe
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According to the Myth, Cassandra was astonishingly beautiful and blessed with the gift of foreseeing the future.
However, she rejected him and to punish her, he cursed her so that no one would ever believe her prophecies. Athena was furious at the Greeks’ failure to punish Ajax for his crime over his rape of Kassandra in her temple and she gravely punished them with the help of Poseidon and Zeus as Poseidon sent storms and strong winds for her to destroy much of the Greek fleet on their way home from Troy. In Homer ’s Iliad , she is the most beautiful of Priam’s daughters but not a prophetess.