Cassandra << kuh SAN druh >> was the daughter of Priam and Hecuba, king and queen of Troy in Greek and Roman mythology. According to Homer, her beauty was so great that Apollo fell in love with her and gave her the power to foretell the future. But she would not love him in return. Apollo angrily punished her by ordering that no one should ever believe her prophecies.
Cassandra warned the Trojans to return Helen to the Greeks and to beware of the Trojan Horse. But they paid no attention. Cassandra was praying at the altar of Athena when Troy fell (see Troy). Agamemnon took her to Mycenae as a slave. There Clytemnestra and Aegisthus murdered her.
The story of Cassandra has been told often in literature. She is a major character in two ancient Greek tragedies, Agamemnon by Aeschylus and The Trojan Women by Euripides. Cassandra also appears in William Shakespeare’s play Troilus and Cressida and many modern poems. Cassandra’s name has come to stand for any prophet of doom.
