Cassandra

Cassandra (Greek: Κασσάνδρα, pronounced [kas̚sándra͜a], also Κασάνδρα), also known as Alexandra or Kassandra, was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy.

A common version of her story is that, in an effort to seduce her, Apollo gave her the power of prophecy—but when she refused him, he spat into her mouth to inflict a curse that nobody would ever believe her prophecies. In an alternate version, she fell asleep in a temple, and snakes licked (or whispered in) her ears so that she could hear the future. A snake as a source of knowledge is a recurring theme in Greek mythology, though sometimes the snake brings understanding of the language of animals rather than an ability to know the future. Cassandra is a figure of epic tradition and of tragedy.

Etymology

Hjalmar Frisk (Griechisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, 1960–1970) notes "unexplained etymology", citing "various hypotheses" found in Wilhelm Schulze, Kleine Schriften (1966), 698, J. B. Hoffmann, Glotta 28, 52, Edgar Howard Sturtevant, Class. Phil. 21, 248ff., J. Davreux, La légende de la prophétesse Cassandre (Paris, 1942) 90ff., and Albert Carnoy, Les ét. class. 22, 344. R. S. P. Beekes (Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. 654) cites García Ramón's derivation of the name from the Proto-Indo-European root *(s)kend- "raise".