#ajax and cassandra

‘ajax and cassandra’ (1886) - solomon joseph solomon

cassandra, sister of trojan hero hector, was given the gift of prophecy by apollo. however, she did not reciprocate the feelings that he had for her which resulted in the god turning his gift into a curse; cassandra could indeed see the future, but the twist was that nobody would believe her. for instance, she tried to warn her people that letting the trojan horse inside of their city would bring death and defeat, though of course her warning was ignored. when the greeks finally entered troy thanks to the wooden horse, cassandra desperately fled to the temple of athena and clung onto a statue of the goddess for protection. despite this, she was followed by ajax (greek hero and rival of hector), who tore her from the statue to tragically assault her - this is the scene depicted in solomon’s painting. thankfully, athena was outraged by ajax’s actions - not only is it an insult to harm someone that was under the protection of the gods, it’s even worse that ajax raped a woman in the temple of a virgin goddess (of all places). on his return home athena unleashed her wrath upon ajax, striking him down with lighting.