Behind Kassandra's Song

This story grew out of "Kalliste", epublished on www.beyondthefarhorizon.com. Kalliste is the personal servant of Potnia, or The Most Holy, aka the Earth Mother, one of the earliest Goddesses we have record of anyone worshipping. She (Potnia) is outside of the normal hierarchy of Gods and Goddesses, as some search on the name will show. Kalliste, born in 1651 BC became the personal servant of Potnia (or P'dania), and was gifted with certain powers, among them being that she doesn't get sick or age, poisons have very little effect on her, and she can alter her guise to appear young, old, or somewhere in between. This does not fool cameras, by the way.

Kassandra became the personal servant of Apollo. Those up on the Greek myths know she was granted a little of Apollo's ability to "see" the future. But only in part. She sees the probabilities, and experience has shown/taught her how to make them come out. But she also bears Apollo's Curse: any prophecy she tells someone will not be believed.

In the myths she was killed by Klytemnestra or Orestes, depending upon which myth you choose. In my version, seeing what was coming, she escapes during the confusion surrounding Agamemnon's death, and goes to Delphi where she raises a temple to Apollo. They reconcile, though he does not take back his Curse. She becomes the Pythia or Prophetess of Delphi.

One of the things I noticed early on in reading Greek Mythis was that the Gods always left a way out. You had to be clever, and if you were, you could wiggle out of whatver dilemma they put you in. In Kassandra's case, we go back to the actual mechanics of the prophecy the Pythia would give. The petitioners would "make a donation" to the temple, and then be allowed to ask a question. The Pythia would go into a trance and babble something in an unknown tongue to a priest. He would write it down and give it to the petitioner. Nowhere in that do they actually hear her give the prophecy, or understand it, as it is in a language they do not know.

This neatly avoids Apollo's Curse. They are handed their answer, and can choose to believe it or disbelieve it. She did not tell it to them, she told it to the priest. Wiggle room. Of course the answer is slightly cryptic, and can be misunderstood. In retrospect, of course, it is seen to be exactly on target.

Whenever you create a character you have to create problems. The other problem all of these personal servants of the Gods have is that they must have contact with one of Them from time to time, otherwise the stresses of their long lives begin to byild up. In Kassandra's Song Kit has a psychotic episode or two, and consciously tries to ignore her past.

So you have an undercover cop who can alter her appearance, has mental problems, and is placed in danger. She's shot at the end of Chapter One.

So what does this have to do with the previous post? I needed to fill in Kassandra's past, including her guilty feelings (still there) over the death of her family and the destruction of Troy, for which she blames herself. And for that, I kind of needed to have an idea of when that war probably occurred.

Are there other personal servants? Yes. What about the Ten Commandments? Remember that comment about wiggle room? Think about it. Kassandra (and Kalliste) both remind people that they aren't Christians.

And, by the way, a long life lets me include doing plenty of flashbacks, and I like writing flashbacks.

Kassandra's Song is available from Amazon, and is also on the Kindle.