Thinking about how Cassandra walked to her own death at Clytemnestra’s hands. Thinking about how she knew. Thinking about how she was so tired that she went anyway. Thinking about how despite seeing the entirety of her future stretching out in front of her, she didn’t fight back.
Thinking about how Clytemnestra murdered Cassandra over Agamemnon’s body. Did she see her daughter, when she looked at Cassandra, raised her blade? Did she see Iphigenia, lying on the altar? Did she see blood on Agamemnon’s hands? Did she look at Cassandra and think “My daughter should be here. My daughter should be standing here, and you’re here instead, because Agamemnon chose you and slaughtered her.”?
Thinking about how Clytemnestra refused to close Agamemnon’s eyes or mouth after she killed him. Thinking about how she denied him funeral rites, denied him a proper burial. Thinking about how when Odysseus meets him at the gates of Hades, he is a restless spirit, how he is still thinking about those last moments, about Clytemnestra turning away. Thinking about how she condemned him never to rest. How when she gets to the afterlife, she will meet her daughter, and he won’t be there to hurt them.
Thinking about how on this vase, Clytemnestra’s face is hidden.
ALT
I can’t help but think, too, what if it had been different? What if Clytemnestra had looked at Cassandra and instead of seeing Iphigenia’s corpse, she saw her face? What if she looked at Cassandra, far from home, walking, docile, to her own murder, and saw Iphigenia looking up at her, and stilled her hand?
What I’m saying is what if Clytemnestra adopted Cassandra and they murdered Agamemnon’s men together. What if they both got a second chance. What if Clytemnestra got to save a daughter. What if Cassandra got to live.
I know myth is defined by silhouettes, not people. It was always going to end like this. It was always going to be this way. If Orpheus hadn’t turned around, it wouldn’t have been Orpheus.
But I think of Hadestown: “As if it might turn out this time.” We sing these songs, tell these stories, again and again, out of that hope that this time, it might be different.
A prophet’s job is to give warnings, because sometimes the future can be changed—sometimes there’s an “if”. “If Achillessails to Troy, he won’t survive the war”, “If the men eat Helios’s cattle, only Odysseus will get to Ithaca alive”.
Prophets stay in their temples and dole out prophecies because people tend to heed them (or at least try to) and not because they can’t leave and affect the story themself. I mean, maybe some gods would get annoyed at them for meddling, but, when you’ve already royally pissed off one god, what more do you have to lose?
What I’m getting at is: AU where Cassandra saves Troy by preventing the war herself, since nobody will listen to her warnings.
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