The Conquest of Cassandra: Paradoxical Clarity in 'Agamemnon' Anonymous College

Though Agamemnon has no shortage of tragedy, perhaps the most tragic figure is none other than a character who appears only briefly, pushed to the sidelines—Cassandra, the prophetess never to be believed. She serves as a foil to Clytemnestra, though they have their comparability: as the only two female characters, they are both constrained by their society’s expectations of them. Cassandra is punished for asserting her authority against Apollo by being given the great gift of seeing the future with the condition of never being believed. Besides this malediction being an incredible source of frustration, Cassandra completely loses any and all control over her life—which, as a concubine, is already little. In a world of chaos and bloody vengeance, it is only fitting that the character that possesses the most clarity should be dismissed and treated as an outcast: Lucidity of vision does not belong in a place where carnage reigns supreme.

As a war prize plucked from the razed city of Troy, Cassandra is treated as an exotic animal, which contributes to her being seen as something trivial. Clytemnestra uses feral language to describe her:

…she is crazed and given over to/the wayward bidding of a wild mind—/too freshly torn off from...