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Hiii! I wonder if we'll see Helenus here? Cassandra's twin? Their situation and relationship is so unclear, and it always fascinates me. They could be either there for each other or they could be archenemies, and each option is equally likely because they're destined to be part of each other's story but we have so little information about them together!

Hi! Helenus will absolutely be a part of this comic, and will actually be making his appearance relatively soon! He was actually one of the first characters I designed directly after Cassandra.

You’re definitely right about their relationship being a bit unclear, so I hope you enjoy how I end up interpreting it when the moment comes!

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I love your artstyle! And i like the way you're rapresenting Apollo and Cassandra reletionship. Usually it varies (some people saying she accepted the gift then tricked him, some saying it was to find if Paris was alive etc) but yeah, you are rapresenting in way we can see Cassandra as a young girl, probably just 13 or older, and this powerful god is basically trying to groom her, and the punishes her for refusing to be abused by him.

Thank you! It was very important to me to portray it in a way that didn’t romanticize or downplay the downright terror of the situation!

As someone who has dealt with similar situations, the not-so-subtle victim blaming often seen in the telling of Cassandra’s story never sat right with me— thus why I made the decision to make her the narrator of her own story!

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Your work is so beautiful!!! I don't know how more people haven't seen this yet!!!

Thank you! That means the world to me!🥰💙💫

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The Crossroads

Greetings, my name is Mara Staples, and this is my blog dedicated to my comic: Complex-Cassandra

I chose this format and platform because I want my work to be freely available to enjoy, even after I begin making physical copies.

This comic will be updated at least twice a month, sometimes more depending on my workflow.

This is a stylized retelling of Cassandra’s myth. It is not entirely accurate, so please keep that in mind when reading.

House Rules:

-This comic is made by one person, I have no assistants or editors, so please remember to be patient

-please read the disclaimers before reading.

-I am proudly anti-A.I. All of my work is my own, everything from the illustration to the writing is made by me. I will not tolerate my work being used to train or “inspire” A.I generated works.

-Please do not debate or argue in the tags or comments

NAVIGATION

Title Page, Disclaimers, and Acknowledgements

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Rest Now, Child - Cassandra and Clytemnestra

My third and final (for now lol) Cassandra painting. I’m actually in the process of writing a short comic about her because I clearly have an infatuation.

Notes under the cut

My thoughts here, were about how in most versions of the myth Cassandra goes calmly to her death at the hands of Clytemnestra; knowing what is about to happen, but finally ceasing to warn others. She is happy when she foresees Agamemnon’s death, and deliberately does not tell him when they arrive back to his home. Cassandra does not plead for mercy, or resist when Clytemnestra kills her; she accepts her fate and moves on.

And I have also been intrigued by Clytemnestra, whose motives for killing Cassandra are inconsistent over each retelling to the story, and how this final interaction might have played out. Her reasons for killing Agamemnon are pretty clear regardless of which version of the story you hear, but the “jealously” motive for the killing of Cassandra never made any goddamn sense to me.

So please consider-

Clytemnestra, seeing this young woman brought by force into her home as a trophy by her husband, much like she herself had been long ago, hesitates for a moment while replaying her murder plot in her mind.

She wasn’t naive, she knew he’d bring home slaves and trophies, but now actually seeing the poor thing in the flesh makes some part of her heart ache.

This scorned woman, who had resolved to kill her husband long ago, seethes not only at the disrespect of him bringing home a foreign concubine, but also at the fact it is girl as young as their own daughters.

She must wonder if this girl is willing, seeing as she does not hesitate as she follows her husband to greet her, only to see how hollow her expression is as she is paraded forward.

Clytemnestra, who has lived this girl’s suffering, feels pity, but cannot risk letting this girl live. She remembers how she felt when she was taken from her homeland, her first husband and child killed by Agamemnon, and justifies her killing as a mercy.

She kills her husband, as revenge for everything he had stolen from her, and goes to kill this girl as old as her Iphigenia would have been, expecting her to run or scream or just do anything but just stand there absently,

and then-

Cassandra, waits: patient, serene, with open arms. She does not dodge the blade, as she knows it will change nothing.

Cassandra, who is at peace knowing she will see her family again soon, and that her captors have met their gruesome ends. She knows she will be going where no god or man can reach her, and smiles.

Cassandra embraces the blade and Clytemnestra with it, and is finally free from her prophecies and her misery; thanks this woman old enough to be her mother, and finally gets to rest.

I like to imagine it as a bittersweet thing. Still a brutal murder, yes, but full of mercy and understanding between two women who have had their lives made hell by the egos and wars of men.

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Please Let Me Be Wrong This Time-Cassandra's Prayer to Athena

Commentary and artists notes under the cut

Here is the second Cassandra painting, showing her pleading for help at the statue of Athena, that is turned away from her. It is a final, futile last resort-as she knows nobody will save her and that she is doomed to be captured by the greeks and killed by Clytemnestra the moment she arrives in Greece, but she still pleads for salvation or, at the very least, revenge for what will happen.

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We Both Know What Happens Next— Cassandra Fleeing Ajax

Commentary/artists statement below the cut!

Wanted to return to my weird kid roots with a Greek mythology piece, and went a bit overboard ^^; and actually ended up painting two in a row, with this piece being the first. Cassandra was always one of my favorite tragic figures in Greek myth, but I always disliked how,,, passively and daintily she is depicted in most classical paintings. Here, my Cassandra attempting to hide from the invasion of the greeks shows her rightfully afraid, making eye contact with the viewer. The owls on the temple pillars are facing away from her, as the gods will only intervene when it is too late. Rather than depicting him as a strapping, heroic figure as the old masters often did, my Ajax is hidden behind the beaten down door and he breaks it open to reach her, the viewer only sees his hands prying apart the planks and one crazed eye. She can see the future, and so can we-and neither of us can do anything to change how the story ends.