The Cassandra metaphor relates to a person whose valid warnings or concerns are disbelieved by others.
The term originates in Greek mythology. Cassandra was a daughter of Priam, the King of Troy. Struck by her beauty, Apollo provided her with the gift of prophecy — either on the condition that she agree to accept his romantic advances, or without prior agreement from Cassandra, depending on the source — but when Cassandra refused Apollo’s romantic advances, he placed a curse on her, ensuring that nobody would believe her warnings. Cassandra was left with the knowledge of future events but could neither alter these events nor convince others of the validity of her predictions.
People have applied the 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.
— Wikipedia
Oh, for fuck’s sake, Wikipedia! Of course some British was first in 1914 to mention this Greek mythology. While Lesya Ukrainka (Larysa Kosach) literally wrote a play named ‘Cassandra’ almost a decade earlier.
Cassandra is one of Lesia Ukrainka’s mature plays, having been written in 1906 and published in 1908. This play encapsulates the general qualities and complexities of Ukrainka’s late works: her use of classical mythology and her intertextual practice, her intense focus on issues of colonialism and cultural subjugation (thus providing an allegorical reading of the asymmetric relationship of Ukrainian and Russian culture), a sharp commentary on patriarchy and the subjugation of women, and — especially in this play — the dilemma of the writer-seer who sees the truth and its ominous implications but is, as the archetypal Cassandra, powerless to impart that to her contemporaries and countrymen.
Having commanded a significant critical reception upon publication in Ukrainian, this work is also strongly autobiographical and a form of Ukrainka’s implicit self-projection into the new Ukrainian cultural canon. Presented here in the contemporary and sophisticated English translation that is attuned to psychological nuance, this play is sure to attract the attention of the modern-day reader interested in Ukrainian literature and culture.