Cassandra
The Trojan prophetess is shown circa 480 BCE in anguish as Greek warriors overwhelm Troy. She had warned of this disaster for many years, but her counsel was ignored, and she was seen as a madwoman.
A large number of ceramic paintings show Ajax seizing Cassandra in the temple of Athena, as she clings to her Palladion statue. (Note that this Athena is the Asiatic pillar-goddess type; the armor is typical of Greek Athena, though here lacking the Corinthian helmet.)
Increasingly, Greek artists focus on Ajax's imminent rape of Cassandra by showing her partially undressed. Attic plate, circa 435 bce.
Here Ajax grabs Cassandra by the hair, about to drag her away from the temple. Again she is shown with her clothing pulled aside, showing a breast--not the way bronze age Trojan women dressed. Note the laurel leaf with ribbons, denoting her prophetic power and connection with Apollo. Neither he nor Athena defended her in the Iliad account, although the epic is loaded with stories of deities stepping in to protect warriors of both sides in the war. Circa 365 BCE.
An Italian version from Campania, circa 340 bce. Here the priestesses is naked from the waist up, with her hand suggestively placed at her breast.
Finally, Cassandra is shown completely naked except for a cape pulled back over her shoulders, and in a new pornographic twist, with her legs apart. Her hand reaches toward the genitals of Ajax while his sword points to hers. Women are lamenting in the background.
