Cassandra (called also Alexandra), a Trojan princess, daughter of Priam and Hecuba. Apollo, enamored of her, permitted her to ask of him whatever she desired as a reward for her complaisance. She begged for the gift of prophecy; but when the god had bestowed it upon her, she refused to keep her promise to him. Thereupon Apollo, unable to withdraw from her the prophetic art, ordained that her predictions should never be believed. In vain she foretold that the abduction of Helen would cause the ruin of Troy, counselled the making of peace with the Atridae, announced to Priam, Paris, and the Trojan people the fate which awaited them, and opposed the reception of the wooden horse. On the night of the capture of Troy she took refuge in the temple of Pallas, but was torn away from the statue of the goddess by Ajax, son of Oileus. She fell by lot as a slave to Agamemnon, who carried her to Greece; and, after fruitlessly advising that prince of the fate reserved for him, she perished with him in the massacre plotted by Clytemnestra. She is an important personage in Greek poetry, and is the heroine of a poem by Lycophron, celebrated for its obscurity.