Cassandra - Modern Adaptations

Modern Adaptations

A modern psychological perspective on Cassandra is presented by Eric Shanower in Age of Bronze: Sacrifice. In this version, Cassandra, as a child, is assaulted by a priest of Apollo.

In the DC comic The Sandman, Delirium, one of The Endless, who has some form of prophetic knowledge but, due to her chaotic nature, her prophecies almost never make sense until it is too late and no other character recognizes them.

A similar situation occurred in Lindsay Clarke's novel The Return from Troy (presented as a reawakened memory), where a priest of Apollo forced himself upon Cassandra and was stopped only when she spat in his mouth. When the priest used his benevolent reputation to convince Priam that he was innocent of her wild claims, Cassandra subsequently went insane.

The myth of Cassandra is also retold by German author Christa Wolf in Kassandra. She retells the story from the point of view of Cassandra at the moment of her death and uses the myth as an allegory for both the unheard voice of the woman writer and the oppression and strict censorship in East Germany.

The author Marion Zimmer Bradley wrote a fantasy novel called The Firebrand, which presents a story from Cassandra's point of view. Marcus Sedgwick's novel The Foreshadowing features a protagonist named Alexandra who has the gift of foresight, though she sees mainly others' pain and death.

In David Gemmell's Troy trilogy, Cassandra is credited with opening the mind of exiled Egyptian prince Gershom (Moses) to his own gift of prophecy. Cassandra got her gift after suffering from 'brain-fever' as a young child, and dies in the volcanic eruption of Thera.

In the section Cassandra of Suggestions for Thought to Searchers after Religious Truth, Florence Nightingale protests the over-feminization of women into near helplessness, such as what Nightingale saw in her mother's and older sister's lethargic lifestyle despite their education. The work also reflects her fear of her ideas being ineffective, as were Cassandra's.

In Hector Berlioz’s opera Les Troyens (1863), based on Virgil's The Aeneid, Cassandra commits suicide with other Trojan women as Troy falls, rather than being raped by Ajax. She dies with the word “Italy” on her lips, presaging (in prophetess mode) her cousin Aeneas’s eventual founding of Rome. This is a role written for a dramatic mezzosoprano, whose most important interpreters in the last years were singers like Petra Lang, Jessye Norman and Anna Caterina Antonacci.

In the 2001-2011 television series Smallville, the Season 1 episode "Hourglass" features a character named "Cassandra Carver" (played by Jackie Burroughs),an elderly woman who can see the future.

In the 1997-2003 television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the seventh season episode "Help" features a character named "Cassie Newton" (played by Azura Skye),a teenage girl who can see the future, such as her own death, her best friend's history test results, the protagonist Buffy Summers' future battle with The First in "Chosen," etc.

In The Secret Series by Pseudonymous Bosch, the narrator gives each character a fake name to hide their identity (for the characters' protection). The name he gives the main protagonist is "Cassandra", or "Cass" for short, naming her after Cassandra of the myth, as Cass is always predicting dangerous events.

The motion picture Contact based upon Carl Sagan's novel borrows the myth with Jodie Foster playing the Cassandra figure and Matthew McConaughey as the Apollo figure.

Showtime television series Homeland uses the same myth with Clare Danes as the Cassandra figure and Damian Lewis as the Apollo figure.

An episode of BBC science fiction sit-com Red Dwarf called 'Cassandra' depicts the ship's crew dealing with a computer called 'Cassandra' who can predict the future with "an accuracy rating of 100%."

In J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, the Divination professor is said to be the great-great-granddaughter of "the celebrated Seer Cassandra Trelawney." (See: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, chapter 15)

Cassandra appears as a main character in Disney's Hercules The Animated Series as a friend of Hercules. Like in mythology she could foresee the future and was generally unbelieved.

In Theresa Tomlinson's novel "The Moon Rider," Cassandra becomes a Moon Rider and is presented as Trojan princess promised to Apollo.