Editing Cassandra (section)

==''Agamemnon'' by Aeschylus==
[[Image:Attic red-figure cup with Ajax and Cassandra Louvre G 458.jpg|thumb|Ajax taking Cassandra, tondo of a [[red-figure]] [[kylix (drinking cup)|kylix]] by the {{Interlanguage link|Kodros Painter|el|3=Ζωγράφος του Κόδρου}}, c. 440–430 BC, [[Louvre]]]]

The play ''[[Oresteia#Agamemnon|Agamemnon]]'' from Aeschylus's trilogy ''[[Oresteia]]'' depicts the king treading the scarlet cloth laid down for him, and walking offstage to his death.<ref name="Agamemnon"/>{{rp|ln. 972}} After the chorus's ode of foreboding, time is suspended in Cassandra's "[[mad scene]]".<ref name="The Cassandra Scene in Aeschylus' 'Agamemnon'">{{Cite journal |first=Seth L. |last=Schein |title=The Cassandra Scene in Aeschylus' 'Agamemnon' |journal=Greece & Rome |series=Second Series |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=11–16 |year=1982  |doi=10.1017/S0017383500028278|s2cid=162149807 }}</ref>{{rp|p. 11–16}} She has been onstage, silent and ignored. Her madness that is unleashed now is not the physical torment of other characters in [[Greek tragedy]], such as in [[Euripides]]' ''Heracles'' or [[Sophocles]]' ''Ajax''.

According to author Seth Schein, two further familiar descriptions of her madness are that of [[Heracles]] in ''[[The Women of Trachis]]'' or [[Io (mythology)|Io]] in ''[[Prometheus Bound]]''.<ref name="The Cassandra Scene in Aeschylus' 'Agamemnon'"/>{{rp|p. 11}} He specifies that her madness is not the type that uses language to descriptive physical agony or other physical symptoms. Instead, she speaks, disconnectedly and transcendent, in the grip of her [[spirit possession|psychic possession]] by Apollo,<ref name="Agamemnon">{{cite book | title=Agamemnon | type=play script | language=el | quote=The chorus find her to be "crazed in mind and transported by a god"}}</ref>{{rp|ln. 1140}} witnessing past and future events. Schein says, "She evokes the same awe, horror and pity as do [[schizophrenics]]".<ref name="The Cassandra Scene in Aeschylus' 'Agamemnon'"/>{{rp|p. 12}} Cassandra is one of those "who often combine deep, true insight with utter helplessness, and who retreat into madness."

[[Eduard Fraenkel]] remarked<ref name="The Cassandra Scene in Aeschylus' 'Agamemnon'"/>{{rp|p. 11, note 6}}<ref name="Kleine Beiträge zur klassische Philologie">{{ cite book | title=Kleine Beiträge zur klassische Philologie | first=Eduard | last=Fraenkel | volume=I | location=Rome | year=1964 | series=Storia e letteratura | language=de | type=book | oclc=644504522 }}</ref> on the powerful contrasts between declaimed and sung dialogue in this scene. The frightened and respectful chorus are unable to comprehend her. She goes to her inevitable offstage murder by [[Clytemnestra]] with full knowledge of what is to befall her.<ref>[[Bernard Knox]] ''Word and Action: Essays on the Ancient theatre'' (Baltimore and London: Penguin) 1979</ref>{{rp|pp. 42–55}}<ref>Anne Lebeck, ''The Oresteia: A study in language and structure'' (Washington) 1971</ref>{{rp|pp. 52–58}}