During his victory speech on Sunday night, newly elected Greek leader Alexis Tsipras made a faux pas (you can hear it here at 6 mins 05 sec).
Before an audience of thousands of supporters, he announced: “Friends, the new Greek government will prove all the Cassandras of the world wrong. [There will be] no mutually destructive clash … We have a great opportunity for a new beginning.”
Cue gasps of horror from Hellenists around the world:
Tsipras is a total hero but the Cassandra story is in Myth 101 and he flubbed it. #schoolboyerror
— suzy corrigan (@suzycorrigan) January 25, 2015
Isn't it a mistake for Tsipras to knock Cassandra(s)? After all, she wasn't an idle doomsayer but someone who got it right
— Stephen Moss (@StephenMossGdn) January 25, 2015
By employing the Cassandra trope, presumably Tsipras was making a reference to politicians and central bankers who have variously predicted the end of Greece/the euro/world economic policy/life as we know it, should his party Syriza get elected – and how they’d all be shown to be horribly wrong now that it has. The problem is Cassandra was ALWAYS right.
Who was Cassandra?
Like most figures in ancient Greek legend, Cassandra had an unhappy life. Remember the Trojan war? Well, Cassandra was the sister of Paris – the idiot Trojan prince who abducted the wife of Greek King Menelaus, Helen of Troy (or Helen of Sparta depending whose side you’re on) and kicked off a decade long war, which ended, as well you know, in astounding feats of equine replica wood carving and the total destruction of a people (the Trojans).
But as if watching your city being reduced to rubble wasn’t terrible enough, Cassandra then became a spoil of war and was subsequently murdered on her arrival in Greece. It was a rough time for everyone.
What she is remembered for today is her gift/curse. According to playwright Aeschylus’s version of events (but interestingly not Homer’s), Apollo had offered Cassandra the gift of foresight if she would receive his advances. She took her prize but turned down her god-suitor and was then cursed by him – never again would she be believed – a cruel punishment aptly illustrated here by Emilia Fox in the 2003 made for TV movie, Helen of Troy (or Helen of Sparta if you’re for justice and against kidnap).
But according to the myth, Cassandra was always right, so Tsipras’s claim that his government would “prove all the Cassandras of the world wrong” doesn’t work.
During her most expressive doomongery moment, Roman poet Virgil had her utter the unforgettably catchy (but fairly racist) line: “Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes” (translation: beware Greeks bearing gifts).
T and Tsipras’s speech, it never bodes well to screw up a reference meant to skew your enemies. Especially when said reference is associated with the line above and you’re a Greek guy bearing gifts. #Awkward.
