Helaena Targaryen and the ‘Cassandra’ Archetype
In Season 2 of House of the Dragon, Queen Helaena has already made one correction prediction (foreseeing the ratcatchers attack on the castle), and another (regarding Aemond’s death) that is yet to be fulfilled. (SPOILER ALERT) For those that have read Fire & Blood, the book on which the show is based, we know that this prediction also comes true — which makes Helaena a prophetess, but a very specific sort of prophetess, known as a ‘Cassandra’.
‘Cassandra’ refers to the Trojan Princess in Greek mythology who was granted the gift of prophecy from the god of the oracles, Apollo. But when the Princess rejects Apollo, he curses her gift, making it so that her prophecies would be accurate, but that no one would ever believe her. Thus, when the Greeks hid in the Trojan horse, Cassandra warned her people of the ploy, only to be dismissed and insulted. The term now refers to anyone whose predictions are unheeded.
Queen Helaena is a Cassandra at the beginning of the Season, perhaps because she is too mild-mannered (and a little odd). But after the murder of her youngest son, Helaena ‘sank deeper and deeper into madness’, spending ‘her days in darkness, weeping’. It is in this state that she is categorically dismissed.
It is also interesting to note that her predictions take place only on the show and are not mentioned in the book, which is, crucially, narrated by an historian. The implication here is that her prophecies were so categorically dismissed that they were not even thought worthy of recording.
