Have you ever felt that you can see a path of events unfolding, but as much as you try to warn others of the dangers you are either ignored or dismissed as alarmist? There is one figure from Greek mythology who encapsulates that frustrating feeling of screaming into the void: Cassandra.

Cassandra was a Trojan Priestess and the daughter of King Priam of Troy. Her brother Paris sparked the Trojan war when he eloped with Helen of Sparta; the woman he judged to be the most beautiful of them all. Their elopement was seen as an egregious act, especially given Helen was already married to Menelaus, the King of Sparta, at the time.

Cassandra shared in her brother’s attractiveness, so much so that she caught the eye of the God Apollo while serving in his temple. Trying to win her favour and, by extension, her virtue, Apollo gifted the priestess with a supernatural boon: The ability to predict future events through the gift of prophecy. However, when Cassandra failed to capitulate to Apollo’s desires, he sought revenge for her rejection. Unable to rescind his gift, Apollo followed it with a curse: that Cassandra’s prophecies would not be believed by anyone who heard them:

“Cassandra, daughter of Priam and Hecuba, is said to have fallen asleep when she was tired of playing, in the temple of Apollo. When Apollo tried to embrace her, she did not permit him. So Apollo brought it about that she should not be believed, though she gave true prophecies.”

Hyginus, Fabulae, Trans. Mary Grant

In the years that followed, Cassandra accurately predicted a series of epic events: the Trojan war, the Trojan horse, the fall of Troy, the founding of Rome, the 10-year voyage of Odysseus, and, finally, the death of Cassandra herself and Agamemnon by the hand of Clytemnestra, Agamemnon’s vengeful wife. Cassandra had foretold them all. Yet not a single soul believed her, dismissing her warnings as the ravings of a mad woman, even when they proved again and again to be true. Even Cassandra’s own father failed her, locking her away to prevent her from bringing shame upon the family:

“This misfortune is the cause of the tragic part which Cassandra acts during the Trojan war: she continually announces the calamities which are coming, without any one giving heed to what she says; and even Priam himself looks upon her as a mad woman, and has her shut up and guarded.”

– A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith Ed.

Even if you are not familiar with the mythology of Cassandra, you can probably relate to her archetypal experience. We all have beliefs about how a particular situation is going to unfold; and when we firmly believe that these actions will lead to negative consequences it is our nature to want to warn others. When these warnings are ignored or disbelieved it is an incredibly frustrating feeling; sometimes it feels like we are just screaming our warnings into an empty void.

As much as you may feel abandoned during these experiences, you are certainly not alone. The feeling of being ignored and dismissed is so common that there is a name for it: the Cassandra Complex. Used by psychoanalyst Melaine Klein to describe this experience of having your well-intentioned warnings ignored or dismissed, she also explains why it happens in her book Envy and Gratitude & Other Works. Here she states that quite often it is the willful ignorance of the listener that causes this phenomenon, calling it: “a refusal to believe what at the same time they know to be true, and expresses the universal tendency toward denial, denial being a potent defense against persecutory anxiety and guilt”.

When we acknowledge that warnings are real, we are faced with significant consequences: we are either forced to act; acknowledge our guilt of inaction; or admit we are powerless in the situation. For many people the psychological discomfort of acknowledgement is greater than living with the cognitive dissonance created by our own willful ignorance.

So, what can you do? My advice would be to keep speaking out loudly, even when it feels like no one is listening. Yell about the dangers of climate change, fascism, anti-vaxxers, racism, toxic masculinity, genocides, unregulated capitalism, and religious extremism. Do it constructively, back yourself up with evidence, credible sources and the voices of like-minded people. Bring light to bear on the actions of others and make ignorance as psychologically uncomfortable as possible. The one thing we should learn from history is the debt we owe to the brave souls who keep speaking out, as Cassandra tried to do.

“Silence in the face of injustice is complicity with the oppressor.” – Ginette Sagan, Human Rights Advocate