by
Laura Fitton
(Paper submitted to Images of Women in the Ancient World: Issues of Interpretation and Identity, Spring 1998)
There are two accounts of how Apollo granted Cassandra the gift of prophecy. The most well known story begins with Cassandra falling asleep in the temple of Apollo. She was a beautiful young woman at this time, and her beauty roused the lust of Apollo, who appeared before her. He promised to teach her the art of prophecy in return for sexual favors. Cassandra agreed to his terms, but after accepting the gift of prophecy, she denied him her body, going back on their bargain: "I consented to Loxias but broke my word." (Agamemnon1208) Apollo was outraged and added a condition to the gift: though Cassandra would always speak the truth, no one would ever believe her; "Already I prophesied to my countryment all their disasters...[but] Ever since that fault I could persuade no one of anything" (1210-13) He begged Cassandra to give him one last kiss, and as she did so, he spat into her mouth, and when he backed away from her, the curse was planted. (Pseudo-Apollodorus 3.3.2, n1 &3.12.5, n7 referring to Servius on Vergil's Aeneid 2.247) Some versions of this myth lean toward the idea of Cassandra convincing Apollo to teach her how to prophesy after he asked her to sleep with him as a return favor, but the point remains that she backed out on her end of the bargain, and was forever cursed.
The other version of this story, held to be told by Anticlides, begins when Cassandra is a young child and involves her twin, Helenus. At their birthday feast in the sanctuary of Thymbraean Apollo, they become tired and fall asleep in a corner of the temple, while their drunken parents leave them behind and return home. When Hecabe returned to the temple to find the lost children, she found Apollo's sacred serpents "purging with their tongues the organs of sense of the children", and she screamed in terror. The serpents disappeared into a pile of laurel boughs, but from that moment both Casandra and Helenus possessed the gift of prophecy. (Pseudo-Apollodorus 1.9.11, n2 referring to Scholiast on the Iliad vii.44)
I find this to be an interesting take on the story of Cassandra and Apollo, although it is not well known. Cassandra's twin, Helenus, is mentioned again in various other Trojan myths as being prophetic as well. The only question not answered in this account is the most important one; how did Cassandra become cursed to never be believed? This narrative is weak and gives few answers, but is an intriguing addition to the relationship between Cassandra and Apollo.
Gods cursing mortals for not cooperating is commonly found in Greek mythology. Men had to keep the laws of the gods, and fully deserved any punishment they received for disobeying or defying the god in question. Greek gods were very childish and immature, and highly likely to bite the head off of unsuspecting innocent Greek mortals. Apollo cannot be blamed for treating Cassandra harshly because she refused to let him defile her, yet Cassandra herself is not fully to blame, for she was intelligent enough to manipulate and trick Apollo into giving her a godly gift.