“Yet, mad with zeal, and blinded with our fate,
We haul along the horse in solemn state;
Then place the dire portent within the tow’r.
Cassandra cried, and curs’d th’ unhappy hour;
Foretold our fate; but, by the god’s decree,
All heard, and none believ’d the prophecy.”
– From Virgil’s The Aeneid 2.323.
In Greek mythology, Cassandra was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. Her brother was Paris, the man whose abduction of Helen, wife of Menelaus of Sparta, started the Trojan war. Her other brother was the brave Hector, a hero of said war.
She was described as beautiful, elegant, intelligent, charming, insane, and cursed.
Legend has it that Apollo, the Greek God of Healing, Light and the Truth fell in love with the young Cassandra. She promised to be his lover so he blessed her with the gift of prophecy. Well, when the time came for her to keep her promise, she spurned Apollo. Well, hell hath no fury than a Greek God spurned and so Apollo cursed her that even though she would prophecy, no one would ever believe her.
So no one believed her when she warned that Paris’ abduction of Helen would lead to war and the destruction of Troy. Neither did they believe her when she warned the Trojans not to drag the horse they found outside the city walls into the city.
After Troy fell, she was assaulted by Ajax, one of the Greek heroes and then given to King Agamemnon as a concubine. He took her back with him to Mycenae. Even though she prophesied that they would be killed on their return to Mycenae, Agamemnon did not believe her. Well on their arrival in Mycenae, both of them were murdered by Agamemnon’s queen, Clytemnestra and her lover.
With her constantly prophesying and no one believing her, it is any wonder she was seem as bring insane?
Cassandra has come to stand for those whose words of warning are never heeded. Those who see foresee the misfortunes that await, but are laughed off as “Chicken Littles”.
It could also stand for those who are blessed with gifts that they cannot harness or can harness but just seem unable to make any personal, societal or financial impact with those gifts.
How frustrating it is to be blessed with a gift that seems to go to waste! These feelings of helplessness, uselessness and futility are enough to drive one mad. They are powerful enough to make one wish to end it all. One wonders if the Gods have conspired to play a cruel joke on these poor souls. It is as if the Gods have colluded to destroy these gifted ones by driving them mad. It almost confirms the saying, “Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.”
So it begs the question, “Why?”
Why are some gifted ones never heeded? Why are some talented ones cursed into utter oblivion and nonfulfillment?
Could it be that like Cassandra, they reneged on a promise to the Gods? That these gifted men and women spurned the Gods? Could it be that their condition is just a price they are paying for betrayal?
In promising to be with Apollo and then later spurning him, Cassandra exhibited a lack of trustworthiness, a lack of character. This is what brought the curse on her.
Could it be that these gifted but unheeded, these talented but unfulfilled people are in this position because of the lack of character? That it may not be a curse at all but a case of deficient moral rectitude that breeds distrust in them? Maybe the curse of Cassandra is not a curse at all but a lesson in how important character is in life. That irrespective of gifts or talents, character may be the most important of all traits, gifts and talents. Maybe Heraclitus was right after all when he wrote that a man’s character is his fate.
Or maybe I am full of hot air and really, only the Gods know!