Cassandra is known as the prophetess of Troy, daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba. Her most famous prediction was the destruction of Troy, related to the abduction of Helen by Paris. This story is a feminist re-imagining of her life and particularly, her role in the last five years of the war. It is based on Christa Wolf’s book, “Cassandra”.
Troy stood in a geopolitically vital position. It controlled the entrance to the Dardanelles Strait, which links the Aegean with the Marmara and Black Seas. Because of this, there was fierce competition to control it, with conflict for 2,000 years, spanning the late Bronze Age, into the Persian Wars, and on through the Crusades in the medieval period. It was no provincial backwater, but an important crossroads in the region, visited by kings and emperors including Xerxes, Alexander the Great and the Roman emperor Augustus.
What had in reality been 200 years of war between many combatants during the course of the late Bronze Age, was condensed into 10 years by Homer in the Iliad. For this reason, there are many plots and incidents. This talk encompasses some of them, including some gruesome battle scenes. Cassandra will be the narrator.