The Tragic Fate Met by Cassandra of Troy

Cassandra was the daughter of Priam, King of Troy, and the sister of Paris who, through his act of corrupting the fidelity of Helen, wife of Agamemnon's brother and the king of Sparta, Menelaus, started the Trojan War. Although she could, with uncanny accuracy foretell the future, she was looked upon by the Trojans as insane, and was even incarcerated for her predictions about the fall of Troy. When Troy was taken, she fled for shelter to the temple of Minerva, where Ajax found her, and offered her violence with the greatest cruelty at the foot of Minerva's statue. To assuage this sacrilege, the Opuntian Locrinas, Ajax's people, were obligated to send yearly a number of noble maidens to serve as slaves in Minerva's temple at Troy. If caught by the inhabitants before reaching the temple, they were executed. This practice, of which there is evidence in the inscriptions, lasted until the early nineteenth century. When Troy fell, Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek army, took Cassandra as a spoil of war and kept her as a slave-mistress.

In Aeschylus' Agamemnon, when Agamemnon makes his triumphant entry into his kingdom, Mycenae, in a chariot, Cassandra is at her side. His queen Clytemnestra had already planned to murder him to avenge his sacrificing their innocent daughter Iphigenia, for obtaining favourable winds when their ships were stuck in the high seas while on expedition to Troy. Feigning wifely joy she greets him and he yields to her persuasion to walk on the rich tapestry. Agamemnon then asks that Cassandra be treated kindly as the gods watch to see the conqueror who uses his power with restraint and justice. As Clytemnestra and Agamemnon enter the palace, Cassandra remains outside.

Presently Clytemnestra comes out of the palace and asks Cassandra to come inside and promises to treat her with kindness. But Cassandra does not reply. Finally, Clytemnestra gets angry and goes inside again.