I've been thinking about Cassandra.

[conuly]

It's said that her curse was not that she could see the future but that she would never be believed about her prophecies.

But what would belief have done? I'm not an expert on Greek mythology, but I can't think of a single time somebody had a prophecy, and then used the information they got wisely and thus prevented the prophecy from coming to fruition. Indeed, most of the time the mere act of getting a prophecy seems to be the key ingredient in forcing the prophecy to come true!

It's hard to know the future before it happens, but how much harder would it have been for her to know that it was through her actions to prevent the future that her visions were made real?

I'm thinking that maybe the curse, the truly bad part, was not that she saw the future, or even that nobody believed her, but that she felt compelled to tell everyone what she saw. When I was little, I used to wonder why she didn't just lie. Tell everyone the pretty lie, they disbelieve you, and then the future is averted. Instead, she had to tell them the truth and deal with their scorn, even as she was proven right time after time. She couldn't accept that they would never believe her, so she had to keep trying to change the course that was already set out. If she had been able to just not talk about it, maybe... things would have gone the same, but maybe it would have been easier for her.

It just seems like it would have been, that's all.

Comments

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

There's someone on a mailing list I'm on, who thinks she is a prophet, and her prophecy is to come true in less than a year and no one believes her and that has to suck...

[conuly]

What's her prophecy?

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

http://www.megalink.net/~klee/neworder.html

In a nutshell, on June 6, 2006, death and disease will disappear from Farmington, Maine. Eventually it will be spread to the rest of the world.

But if you want to be cured you can go to Farmington, Maine, which will I guess annex other towns and therefore everyone will fit.

There is a mailing list about it, but on the non Prophecy ones that she was on and being belligerent, I had to unsubscribe, it was driving me nuts. She turned EVERYTHING around to Farmington.

If it happens, great, then I'll march my happy butt up there or something, but she's really obnoxious about it. And when people suggest that she talk to others about it (not as in she's crazy but with Quakers when you have leadings and all that really you talk to others and kind of see where it goes) she's all 'too bad, Jesus said this, you're all wrong, kthxbye'.

There is another guy on an unmoderated list who has said he is schizophrenic (and posts some of the most bizarre things I have ever seen, sometimes very hostile) and for a while they were really getting into it and then he turned on her, and that was very trainwreckish to watch.

It was crazier than LJ, I swear.

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

Just to let you know some of the fun on her mailing list, I just saw this:

"Hello

I am a post-operative male to female transsexual. I consider that God
has gently led me to realise that I am female, against my anguished
denials. I will be forty next year, but I would very much like to go to
Farmington in order to develop uterus and ovaries, so that I might
become pregnant.

As far as I understand the prophecy, the other possibility when I enter
Farmington is that I might realise that I had been mistaken all this
time, and be restored as a man, in my right mind. In either case,
according to God's good will, I would be made healthy.

L, are you aware which result I would experience, as part of the
prophecy? Which result do you think I would experience?

Love,
xxxxxx"

(I figure it is publically available it is ok to reprint.)

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

In the context of the story, she could have kept them from bringing *in* the Trojan horse, of course. But you're right that the point of prophecy in mythology is pretty much that no one will ever listen. No one listened to Teiresias either, and he wasn't explicitly cursed.

Or rather, no one listened to Teiresias in any of the stories we *remember*. I guess that's the subtle difference.

I used to wonder why she didn't lie too, but then I realised the point of mythology isn't character motivation. You can keep asking "why" a person does something, and that's not really the point. The point is the events. You kind of have to reverse-engineer yourself from English classes.

[conuly]

If they'd listened to fortune tellers, it'd make for some very boring stories.

Teiresias: Don't do this! You'll regret it if you do!
King Whoever: Huh, you think? Well, this is why we keep you around! *doesn't do it*
Audience: Um... what just happened?

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

Precisely why we don't remember them. ;-)

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

There's someone on a mailing list I'm on, who thinks she is a prophet, and her prophecy is to come true in less than a year and no one believes her and that has to suck...

[conuly]

What's her prophecy?

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

http://www.megalink.net/~klee/neworder.html

In a nutshell, on June 6, 2006, death and disease will disappear from Farmington, Maine. Eventually it will be spread to the rest of the world.

But if you want to be cured you can go to Farmington, Maine, which will I guess annex other towns and therefore everyone will fit.

There is a mailing list about it, but on the non Prophecy ones that she was on and being belligerent, I had to unsubscribe, it was driving me nuts. She turned EVERYTHING around to Farmington.

If it happens, great, then I'll march my happy butt up there or something, but she's really obnoxious about it. And when people suggest that she talk to others about it (not as in she's crazy but with Quakers when you have leadings and all that really you talk to others and kind of see where it goes) she's all 'too bad, Jesus said this, you're all wrong, kthxbye'.

There is another guy on an unmoderated list who has said he is schizophrenic (and posts some of the most bizarre things I have ever seen, sometimes very hostile) and for a while they were really getting into it and then he turned on her, and that was very trainwreckish to watch.

It was crazier than LJ, I swear.

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

Just to let you know some of the fun on her mailing list, I just saw this:

"Hello

I am a post-operative male to female transsexual. I consider that God
has gently led me to realise that I am female, against my anguished
denials. I will be forty next year, but I would very much like to go to
Farmington in order to develop uterus and ovaries, so that I might
become pregnant.

As far as I understand the prophecy, the other possibility when I enter
Farmington is that I might realise that I had been mistaken all this
time, and be restored as a man, in my right mind. In either case,
according to God's good will, I would be made healthy.

L, are you aware which result I would experience, as part of the
prophecy? Which result do you think I would experience?

Love,
xxxxxx"

(I figure it is publically available it is ok to reprint.)

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

In the context of the story, she could have kept them from bringing *in* the Trojan horse, of course. But you're right that the point of prophecy in mythology is pretty much that no one will ever listen. No one listened to Teiresias either, and he wasn't explicitly cursed.

Or rather, no one listened to Teiresias in any of the stories we *remember*. I guess that's the subtle difference.

I used to wonder why she didn't lie too, but then I realised the point of mythology isn't character motivation. You can keep asking "why" a person does something, and that's not really the point. The point is the events. You kind of have to reverse-engineer yourself from English classes.

[conuly]

If they'd listened to fortune tellers, it'd make for some very boring stories.

Teiresias: Don't do this! You'll regret it if you do!
King Whoever: Huh, you think? Well, this is why we keep you around! *doesn't do it*
Audience: Um... what just happened?

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

Precisely why we don't remember them. ;-)