Troy: The Greek Myths Reimagined (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology #3)

by Stephen Fry

The priestess’s name was Cassandra, and she had chosen a holy calling over the life of a princess. The most beautiful and gifted of the daughters of Priam and Hecuba, she had devoted herself to this temple of Apollo in Troy. It was her ill luck to have caught the eye of the god himself, who—captivated by her beauty—gave her the gift of prophecy. More a bribe than a gift. He moved in to take her into his arms. “No!” Cassandra said at once. “I give myself to no one, god or mortal. I do not consent. No, no . . . !” “But I gave you as great a gift as any mortal can have,” said Apollo, outraged. “That’s as may be. But I never asked for it and certainly never agreed to give you my body in return. No. I refuse you. No.” Apollo could not take back the gift—it was an adamantine law that no immortal could undo what they or another immortal had done81—so, in his fury, he spat into Cassandra’s mouth just as it was rounding for a repetition of the word “No.” The spit was a curse. It meant that Cassandra’s prophecies would always go unheeded. No matter how accurately she foretold the future, no one would ever believe her. It was her fate to be ignored.