Notwithstanding their differences in age, background, sex appeal, and sightedness, seer-prophets Cassandra and Teiresias are surprisingly similar regarding one significant aspect of their visionary abilities: the characters most directly affected by their insight and prophecies don't believe what Teiresias and Cassandra tell them.
Teiresias is renowned and respected throughout Greece, most particularly by the people of Thebes. The character appears in Sophocles's Oedipus Rex and Antigone, in Euripides's The Phoenician Women and The Bacchae, and in Homer's The Odyssey. Teiresias's skills are very much in demand.
When Teiresias first appears in Oedipus Rex, Oedipus can't say enough good things about him.
OEDIPUS. Teiresias, seer who comprehendest all,Lore of the wise and hidden mysteries,High things of heaven and low things of the earth,Thou knowest, though thy blinded eyes see naught,What plague infects our city; and we turnTo thee, O seer, our one defense and shield. ...
O save thyself, thy country, and thy king,Save all from this defilement of blood shed.On thee we rest.
However, the minute Teiresias says something that Oedipus doesn't want to hear, Oedipus attacks him, vilifies him, and tries to discredit him.
OEDIPUS. Vile slanderer, thou blurtest forth these taunts,And think'st forsooth as seer to go free. ...
Thou shalt rue itTwice to repeat so gross a calumny. ...
Is this a plot of Creon, or thine own?
Cassandra is disbelieved too, not for what she says but because she's the person who's saying it. She was once Apollo's lover, but she refused to bear him a child as she promised she would. Angered by her refusal, Apollo gave Cassandra the gift of prophecy, but he also gave her a curse that her prophecies would never be believed.
Cassandra also doesn't help her own cause. In her big scene in Agamemnon, she behaves like a madwoman, calling out to Apollo, ranting about a curse on the house of Agamemnon, and making seemingly incoherent prophecies about Agamemnon's death and her own destiny.
CASSANDRA. Ah, look! Look! Keep his mate from the Wild Bull!A tangle of raiment, see;A black horn, and a blow, and he falleth, fullIn the marble amid the water. I counsel ye.I speak plain … Blood in the bath and treachery! ...
Poor woman! Poor dead woman! … Yea, it is I,Poured out like water among them. Weep for me….Ah! What is this place? Why must I come with thee….To die, only to die?
Cassandra exits into the palace. Within a few moments, the palace doors open revealing a bloody Agamemnon dead in his bathtub, a bloody Cassandra dead on the floor, and a blood-spattered Clytemnestra standing over them with a bloody axe. Clytemnestra defiantly proclaims that by killing Agamemnon she's avenged the death of her daughter, Iphigenia.
Clytemnestra doesn't mention Cassandra, but Clytemnestra apparently killed Cassandra because she doesn't like her very much and because Cassandra refused to speak to Clytemnestra earlier in the play....
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Cassandra's death also fulfills her own prophecy and neatly ties up any loose ends regarding Cassandra's fate.
In Teiresias's case, people like Oedipus really should have known better. It's remarkable, almost incomprehensible, that Oedipus or anybody else would disbelieve Teiresias, who proved time and time again over the course of many years that he's a wise and skillful prophet. It's also been shown time and time again that disbelieving Teiresias always makes things worse.
Both Tiresias and Cassandra are prophets with a direct line to the gods. As a consequence, their prophecies turn out to be remarkably accurate. Yet it is notable that their prophecies are ignored by those who would do well to heed them. In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus and his mother/wife Jocasta attack Tiresias and play down the accuracy and significance of his prophecies. Why? Because it's not in either of their interests to face up to the terrible truth that Oedipus has killed his father and married his mother.
For Cassandra, it is an unfortunate symptom of her prophetic powers that she will not be believed, and not just by those who have most to lose from her prophecies coming true. This is as the result of a curse put upon Cassandra by the god Apollo when she was first given the gift of prophecy. So whenever Cassandra makes one of her prophecies, she's destined to be disbelieved.
Among other things, this gives her the appearance of a mad woman, a deranged crank whom no one can take seriously. Whereas Tiresias is widely revered and respected—which makes Oedipus' and Jocasta's attacks upon his integrity all the more shocking—Cassandra is destined to be one of society's outcasts. Being ignored and belittled causes Cassandra to go mad in Aeschylus' Agamemnon. Unlike Tiresias, she derives no inner satisfaction from knowing that she's in the right.
Cassandra and Tiresias, within the context of their respective trilogies, serve similar narrative purposes. Both are used as foreshadowing devices to indicate tragic and ironic events to come. They are both "blessed with the gift of prophecy" but bear an accompanying curse as well. Both received their gift and ironic curse after a brief confrontation with the gods. According to one of the most popular myths, Tiresias had lived his life for seven years as a woman due to a curse of Hera. After the curse had been lifted, Zeus and Hera asked Tiresias which gender experienced greater pleasure during sex, as Tiresias had experienced both. He responded that it was women, and Hera furiously struck him blind. Zeus, however, granted him gifts of foresight and longevity. This is merely one of many myths, however, and some sources state that Tiresias was simply struck blind for revealing the secrets of gods with his abilities. Similarly, legends say that as a priestess of Apollo, Cassandra had promised Apollo all of herself should he grant her clairvoyance. He did, but Cassandra did not keep her oath in terms of sexuality. Apollo then cursed her to always be disbelieved regardless of the accuracy of her predictions, causing everyone around her to see her as a liar and lunatic. The primary difference in the two is their status in society. Tiresias, being known for his wisdom and long life, was widely revered and respected, and kings such as Oedipus and Creon were thought of as foolish to disregard his counsel. Cassandra, cursed with a perpetual lack of credibility, was seen as trifling and insane and was widely despised. The curse, quite understandably, eventually led to her actual frustration and madness.
Both Cassandra in "The Oresteia" by Aeschylus and Tireisias in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles are prophets with an authentic gift of prophecy. In both cases though, the gift is a mixed blessing, because it is mixed with a curse. In the case of Tireisias, although he sees the true future, he is blind, and cannot see the world around him. In the case of Cassandra, the god Apollo granted her the gift of prophecy, but also cursed her with the fate that she would never be believed, as Cassandra herself described in her monologue in the "Agamemnon", the first play in The Oresteia trilogy:
They call me crazy, like a fortune-teller,A poor starved beggar-woman - and I bore it!And now the prophet undoing his prophetessHas brought me to this final darkness.
Two obvious differences between the characters are age and gender -- Tireisias is an old man and Cassandra a young women. Another major difference between the characters is that Tireisias is more honoured than Cassandra and is still alive at the end of "Oedipus Rex", while Cassandra, a dishonoured war prize, is killed by Clytemnestra.
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