The New Student's Reference Work/Cassandra

Cassandra (ka-san′ drä), in Homeric legend, was the fairest daughter of Priam, king of, and twin sister of Helenus. The two children were left one night in the sanctuary of, and while asleep their ears were touched and purified by two snakes so that they could understand the language of birds and thus know the future. Apollo afterward taught Cassandra the secret of prediction; but she rejected his love, and as a penalty he laid upon her the curse that no prediction should ever be believed. So she in vain predicted the treachery of the Grecian horse and the destruction of Troy, and was looked upon by the citizens as mad. On the sack of the city she was torn from the temple by Ajax Oileus, and in the distribution of the spoil she became the share of. She was afterward murdered by Clytemnestra.