Cassandra’s Prophecy between Ecstasy and Rational Mediation

Abstract

two phases in Cassandra's prophecy: ecstasy/ mediation. 4 phases in the clairvoyance which reflect "p.152: an oracular practice, which was part of Athenians' common experience and which found the most famous concrete form in Delphi, where the institution itself provided the co-existence of the Pythia and her interpreters".-->these four stages are (p.153):glossolalia (preceded by silence and immobility)-cries, ritual invocations 2) clairvoyance without mediation- visions, soliloguy 3) clairvoyance with mediation: rational interpretation of visions, awareness of audience's presence, well constructed sentences, causal nexus, use of metaphors for visions, past and future tense 4)rational prophecy: rationality, interpretation, judgment on prophecies, dialogue, temporal and casual consequence, normal use of tenses. ==>l.1267: Mazzoldi (p.154) puts as being uttered in stage C: clairvoyance with mediation-->lines 1258-78: clairvoynace with mediation: i.e. me vasH osa leei ws harakteristika tis fasis: she is aware of the audience's presence, she uses metaphors for visions, past and futre tense, rational interpretation of visions--> --> thus she is not in mantic frenzy when she performs the act, she has awareness of her actions, awareness of the audience--which strengthens indirectly the argument that she is an agent- she knows what she is doing, she recognizes the ate involved in her action, not just a passionate victim (in the same way that Agamemnon mediated for his decisiion she mediates when she decides to cast off the act, circumstances lead her but she has reflection of what she is doing).