Casandra's pages - about the name

        The userid, casandra, is a reference to the character Cassandra in the "Illiad", and to the character Sandy in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brody".

        The most common spelling is Cassandra, but as this is a transliteration into the Roman alphabet from the original Greek , it is not the only logical spelling.
I have also seen it spelled with a K in place of the C.

        The dropping of the second S was done because the ISP that I use set an 8-character limit on the user-ID.

        In Homer's "Illiad", Priam was the King of Troy, and Cassandra was his daughter. Apollo fell in love with her and gave her the gift of prophesy; when he became displeased with her he "rendered the gift unavailing by ordaining that her predictions should never be believed". Cassandra in due course foretold that Paris would kidnap Helen, that this would start a war with the Greeks, that the wooden horse would cause the fall of the city, and that Agamemnon would be murdered by his wife's lover (that's another story: see Elektra, Orestes).

        In "The Prime of Miss Jean Brody" which was first a novel, then a movie, and more recently a BBC television show. Miss Brody is a teacher who puts very romantic, but often dangerous ideas into the heads of her favorite pupils. Sandy is one of her favorites who doubts Miss Brody and seeks out the realities of life. Miss Brody imagines grand futures for each of her favorites and encourages them to live out these fantasies. When she comes to Sandy, Miss Brody pauses, momentarily at a loss, "and Sandy......, Sandy is dependable".

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This page last updated on: April 5, 1999