Douglas Mercer
October 29 2024
O my prophetic soul!—Hamlet
The giant forms who invented poetry are the anthropological equivalent of grandmasters, wizards, medicine men and shamans whose vocation is survival and teaching others to survive. Poetic wisdom is founded upon divination and to sing—simply and even etymologically—is to foretell. Poetic thought is proleptic and the Muse invoked under the name of memory is an undertaking to remember—that is make—the future.
In Hamlet the protagonist is asked what he is reading and he replies words words words; in his madness he is described by someone as speaking wild and whirring words; before the play within the play commences he says he eats of the chameleon’s dish, the air, which is full of promise; then he speaks some words which he then say are no longer his, as they have escaped his lips. For words once spoken no longer belong to the speaker anymore than the bullet fired belongs to the gun.
The boy who cries wolf was originally a fable by Aesop connoting a “false alarm” as the boy persistently tells the villagers that there is a wolf on the way when in fact there is not; and then when a wolf does appear and the boy tries to alert the townsfolk of that fact they don’t pay him any heed given his prior penchant for lying. Likewise Kierkegaard likens the end of the world to a time when a fire breaks out backstage at a performance and it falls to the clown to come out to notify the crowd; the crowd naturally thinks that this is part of the show and being to clap and laugh; and as the clown desperately tries to alert them that he is in dead earnest he has them, by the end of it, rolling in the aisles at what they consider to be comic relief.
People have applied the Cassandra metaphor in a variety of contexts, such as psychology, environmentalism, politics, science, cinema, the corporate world, and philosophy; it has been in circulation since at least 1914, when Charles Oman used it in his book A History Of The Peninsular War, Volume 5, published in 1914. Both of them agreed to treat the Cassandra-like prophecies which Thiebault kept sending from Salamanca as wild and whirling words. The Oxford English Dictionary records the use of Cassandra like from 1670 and of Cassandra prophecy from 1863. Later, in 1949, French philosopher Gaston Bachelard coined the term Cassandra Complex to refer to a belief that things could be known in advance, thus psychologizing and pathologizing the concept and treating it under the umbrella of paranoia and psychotic breaks and a faulty belief in one’s omnipotence, omniscience and clairvoyance.
Cassandra was a daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. The oldest and most common versions of the myth state that she was admired by the god Apollo, who sought to win her love by means of the gift of seeing the future. But when she spurned his suit the enraged god added the curse that though she would be able to divine fate her fate would be for no one to believe her; and they would therefore consider her mad, and as speaking wild and whirring words of which they could make neither hide nor hair.
Hjalmar Frisk (Greek Word Etymologies) notes that the name Cassandra has an unexplained and mysterious etymology citing various hypotheses such as the Proto Indo European Root skend (raise). Though it has also been seen to be linked to andros (male human being) but a more likely source has been skand (shine) or even kekasmai (to overcome, surpass, excel).
The adjective mantic comes from the Greek word mantikos, which itself derives from mantis, meaning prophet. Not surprisingly, the combining form mancy means divination in a (specified) manner. A less expected and more distant etymological relative is mania, meaning excitement manifested by mental and physical hyperactivity, and elevated mood or excessive enthusiasm. Mania descends from Greek mainesthai (to be mad), a word akin to mantis and its offspring. And indeed, prophesying in ancient Greece was sometimes believed to be inspired madness or divine frenzy emanating from devoted but histrionic love of the gods.
Cassandra appears in book two of his epic poem titled Aeneid, with her powers of prophecy restored. Unlike Homer, Virgil presents Cassandra as having fallen into a mantic state and her prophecies reflect it. Her cursed gift from Apollo became an endless pain and frustration to her. She was seen as a liar and a madwoman by her family and by the Trojan people. Because of this, her father, Priam, had locked her away in a chamber and guarded her like the madwoman she was believed to be. In The Fall of Troy Cassandra attempted to warn the Trojan people that Greek warriors were hiding in the Trojan Horse while they were celebrating their victory over the Greeks with feasting. Disbelieving Cassandra, the Trojans resorted to calling her names and hurling insults at her. Attempting to prove herself right, Cassandra in a state of agitated desperation took an axe in one hand and a burning torch in the other, and ran towards the Trojan Horse, intent on destroying the Greeks herself, but the Trojans stopped her. The Greeks hiding inside the Horse were relieved, but alarmed by how clearly she had divined their plan.
The Cassandra metaphor (variously labeled the Cassandra syndrome, complex, phenomenon, predicament, dilemma, curse) relates to a person whose valid warnings or concerns are disbelieved by others. Cassandra was left with the knowledge of future events but could neither alter these events nor convince others of the validity of her predictions.
Fenrir (Old Norse fen dweller) or Fenrisulfr (Old Norse Fenrir wolf), also referred to as Hroovitnir (Old Norse fame wolf) is a monstrous wolf in Norse Mythology. In Old Norse Texts Fenrir plays a key role during the events of Ragnarok, where he is foretold to assist in setting the world aflame, resulting in the collapse of humanity and society and killing the gods. In the Prose Edda, additional information is given about the mysterious and ominous Fenrir, including that, due to the gods' knowledge of prophecies foretelling great trouble from Fenrir and his rapid growth, the gods bound him and as a result Fenrir bit off the right hand of a god. Depictions of Fenrir have been identified on various objects and scholarly theories have been proposed regarding Fenrir's relation to other canine beings in Norse mythology. Fenrir has been the subject of artistic depictions and he appears in literature. Frenrir was born as an abnormally large wolf with a great intelligence but had an evil temperament and so became an enemy of the gods; fetters are forged to restrain the wolf until the day of Ragnarok; when with wild and whirling words we cry wolf and he breaks free.
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Notes:
Get out of the doorway
They’ve all caught
The death in a fog
Will it come when we call?
We will keep
Our friends serene
We are getting
Very tired
Of their horse town
Approach
Sweet reminiscences
Something our mothers
Used to bake
There's going to be
Sorrow
Try to wake up
Before tomorrow
We know they are
Not protected
From what's plain to see
Hunt them the ground
We will
With kill appeal
Howl
Howl
Wolf
Wolf
