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The moving myth of Cassandra

The myth of Cassandra teaches us that credibility is more important than clairvoyance itself. You can see beyond where others see, but this is only truly useful if others give credibility to your words. The messenger is sometimes more important than the message.

The myth of Cassandra is another of those fantastic stories that the Greeks left us and that allow us to know a little better about the nature of human beings and culture. As is often the case with these stories, there are several versions and each of them is, in one way or another, fascinating.

In the two main versions of the Kassandra myth it is said that she was the daughter of Priam and Hecuba, two Trojan nobles. One of the stories says that he was born together with a twin brother named Héleno. The parents had a great feast in the temple of Apollo and at the end of the day they forgot the children and left them there all night.

The next day, they noticed their mistake and returned to the temple to pick them up. When they got there, they saw that two snakes were sliding down their bodies, passing mainly over the organs linked to the senses. . It was a magical fact that purified them and granted them a gift: that of prophecy. The parents screamed and the snakes left.

What we are talking about is so obvious that it is completely dark, and it is so open that it is absolutely secret.”.

-Tony Parsons-

The most popular version of the Kassandra myth tells a different story. She says she was an only child and also singularly beautiful. So, Apollo, who was the god of the sun, fell in love of her as soon as he saw her. On the other hand, she frequently went to her temple to ask him to grant her some gift.

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In love, Apollo made him a proposal. He would grant him the gift of prophecy if in exchange Cassandra married him. She could see future events clearly, as long as she kept the pact. The girl accepted and Apollo granted her the gift of clairvoyance. However, once she obtained the gift, she no longer wanted to fulfill her part.

The myth of Cassandra says that Apollo became angry. Despondent and hurt by the affront, he appeared to her in her dreams and spat in her mouth. With that gesture, Cassandra preserved the gift of clairvoyance, losing the gift of persuasion.. This way, she would be able to see what was going to happen in the future, but no one around her would pay attention or believe her predictions.

The tragic gift

The myth of Cassandra then raises the paradox of having a gift, but not having the possibility of taking advantage of it. This contradiction becomes especially evident in two moments in the history of Troy.

She managed to foresee that Paris would bring ruin to the kingdom and made it known, but no one believed her. It is said that when she was going to make predictions about her, Apollo took possession of her body, causing her to suffer convulsions.

When Paris arrives with Helen of Troy, Cassandra warns of the great evils that will occur due to this fact. However, no one pays attention to her words.

In addition, She is adamantly opposed to the famous wooden horse entering the city. She knew of its contents and she wanted to avoid the tragedy, but she was not listened to.. That was her curse.

The end of Cassandra

According to the myth of Cassandra, the Achaeans, who had invaded Troy using the famous wooden horse, began a merciless plunder. Kassandra was captured as spoils of war. They gave her to King Agamemnon, who fell in love with her. With him she lost her virginity, giving him a pair of twin sons.

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Agamemnon decided to return to Greece and Cassandra had a vision in which her death and that of her husband were clearly presented to her. She fervently asked him not to make that trip, to no avail in her attempts at persuasion. When they reached their destination, Agamemnon’s official wife, Clytemnestra, killed them both..

Other versions of the Cassandra myth

This version that you have read is the most popular. If you go to other sources, you will find changed details like the ones below:

Some versions say that Cassandra and her twin brother Helenus obtained the gift of clairvoyance while sleeping in the temple of Apollo. There, some snakes cleaned their ears, granting them the ability to see the future. Other versions state that what Kassandra achieved was the gift of speaking with animals, not clairvoyance. Some versions include that, before being handed over to Agamemnon, Ajax (son of Oileus) raped her under an altar dedicated to Athena. For this sacrilege, the goddess punished him by asking Poseidon to sink her ship, killing him. In some versions, Cassandra is treated like a madwoman and is locked up on several occasions. In others she is just misunderstood.

The interpretation of the myth

The French philosopher Gaston Bachelard postulated the theory of the Cassandra Complex. I thought that typically feminine aspects, such as intuition and imagination, are systematically ignored by culture. The psychoanalyst Melanie Klein, for her part, points out that the myth of Cassandra represents human morality: it warns us of the consequences of unethical acts to which we often do not pay attention.

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For its part, Jungian psychologist Laurie Layton Schapira points out that we all manage to identify, in one way or another, what will harm us in the future.. However, we decided not to pay attention to it and meekly marched towards our own misfortunes.

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All cited sources were reviewed in depth by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, validity and validity. The bibliography in this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.

Espinoza, N. Á. (2013). Female silence in the Greek myth of Cassandra. Magazine of Modern Languages, (19).

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