{"id":4316,"date":"2025-11-13T08:00:41","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T13:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/?p=4316"},"modified":"2025-11-21T10:21:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T15:21:00","slug":"maiden-myth-muse-cassandra-princess-of-troy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/2025\/11\/13\/maiden-myth-muse-cassandra-princess-of-troy\/","title":{"rendered":"Maiden, Myth, Muse: Cassandra, Princess of Troy"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a habit of needing to know everything there is to know about the media that I consume\u2013books, movies, songs\u2013that\u2019s given me a lot of random and mostly useless knowledge. I read the <\/span>Acknowledgements <\/span><\/i>section in books, Wikipedia asks me for money a lot because I\u2019m always looking up actors and singers, and I frequently say the phrase \u201cI need to know the lore.\u201d Naturally, when my 17-year-old self first listened to Florence + the Machine\u2019s fifth studio album, <\/span>Dance Fever, <\/span><\/i>there was a lot to unpack. One of my favorite songs off the album was \u201cCassandra,\u201d the signature combination of off-putting lyricism and remarkable vocals and instrumentation. So began my interest in the story of the mythical Cassandra, a fascination that only grew two years later when I listened to Taylor Swift\u2019s <\/span>The Tortured Poet\u2019s Department, <\/span><\/i>which also includes a song entitled \u201cCassandra\u201d (not to mention another track featuring Florence + the Machine).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cassandra is only lightly mentioned in Homer\u2019s <\/span>Iliad<\/span><\/i>\u2013the famous epic about the Trojan War, focusing particularly on Achilles\u2013as being the most beautiful of Priam\u2019s many daughters (<\/span>Cassandra | Myth, Significance, & Trojan War | Britannica<\/span><\/a>). The story that both Welch and Swift play with in their songs is primarily from Aeschylus\u2019 tragedy <\/span>Agamemnon. <\/span><\/i>In this version of Cassandra\u2019s tale, she\u2019s desired by the god Apollo, who promises her the gift of prophecy on the condition that she sleeps with him. She accepts, but after being granted the gift, refuses Apollo, who then curses her to never be believed. True to the curse, Cassandra accurately predicts the fall of Troy, but isn\u2019t believed. After the destruction, she\u2019s \u201cclaimed\u201d by the Greek general Agamemnon, and enters the palace of Mycenae knowing she will be murdered alongside him by Clytemnestra, Agamemnon\u2019s wife. a. However, before suffering the queen\u2019s wrath, she performs a series of disturbing visions (<\/span>Cassandra, The Gift of Prophecy and Apollo’s Curse<\/span><\/a>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are striking similarities to both \u201cCassandra\u201d songs, as is to be expected given their shared mythological inspiration and similar production time. First, both Welch and Swift inhabit the persona of Cassandra. This, in addition to their obviously shared interest in the story itself, is an intriguing overlap, especially considering the two main concepts of the story are a woman refusing a powerful man\u2019s (or god) advances and her words not being believed by the public. The themes of Cassandra\u2019s story are strikingly similar to the issues at the forefront of the somewhat debated fourth wave of feminism, with a focus on sexual assault and harassment (particularly in the workplace), including the high-profile #MeToo movement on social media. Initially a <\/span>grassroots movement founded in Tarana Burke in 2006<\/span><\/a>, the hashtag went viral in 2017 after actress Alyssa Milano encouraged survivors to use the hashtag. Though less prevalent in 2025, the movement launched sexual violence awareness into the mainstream and has served as a defining feature of modern feminism\u2013yet, as the story of Cassandra demonstrates, these issues have existed long before the inception of the #MeToo movement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Via Marubeni Institute<\/p><\/div>\n

Swift and Welch\u2019s shared use of Cassandra\u2019s story and imagery seems to me to be a parallel to the feminist interpretation of the Medusa story, in which Athena\u2019s \u201ccurse\u201d of Medusa\u2013giving her snakes for hair and a petrifying gaze\u2013is to protect her from further violence at the hands of men, and the related use of Medusa tattoos for survivors of sexual violence. Both are instances of reclaiming, and somewhat reinterpreting, the stories of mistreated ancient women of mythology as modern symbols of survival and empowerment. In what follows I share some of what I consider the most intriguing points of contact between Taylor Swift and Florence + Machine\u2019s songs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Big God<\/i><\/b><\/h1>\n

Florence + the Machine is known for its use of religious imagery, most obviously in songs titled \u201cGirls Against God,\u201d \u201cSt. Jude,\u201d and \u201cThe Old Religion,\u201d as well as \u201cBig God.\u201d Interestingly, many songs include a mixture of Christian\u2013particularly Catholic, as Florence Welch was raised\u2013and pagan imagery.\u00a0 \u201cCassandra\u201d features this intriguing combination: \u201c\u2018Cause they put crosses on the door to try and keep me out,\u201d \u201cAll the gods have been domesticated \/ And Heaven is now overrated \/ And the churches, they all closed their doors \/ You can take your complaints straight to the Lord,\u201d and finally a plea: \u201cTake\u00a0 me back \/ Oh, drunken gods of slaughter \/ You know I\u2019ve always been your \/ Favorite daughter.\u201d\u00a0 Like in her other songs, the mixture of Christian religious imagery like crosses and Heaven alongside plural addresses to god<\/span>s<\/span><\/i> lends a certain universality to the song, expressing in this instance a general idea of being abandoned by religion and deities themselves, despite having once been beloved. The combination of the different types of religious imagery in this song seems also to bring Cassandra to modernity, perhaps linking Welch with the persona she inhabits in the song.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n