Imagine holding the exact blueprint for the end of your world, knowing who will cause it and how to stop it, and being laughed at, dismissed, or locked up every time you try to warn someone. This episode pieces together a narrative biography of Cassandra, princess and prophetess of Troy, from ancient epics, classical plays, and historical chronicles. We begin with the contradictory descriptions of her appearance, from Homer's fairest of Priam's daughters to later portraits of a short, dark, grounded priestess, and what those shifts reveal about how each era needed to use her.

We then examine the origins of her gift: the bargain with Apollo she backed out of, the curse that made her always truthful and never believed, and the older tradition of serpents licking her ears in a temple. From there we follow her through the war: warning against P ...