Lykophron: Alexandra

Traditionally ascribed to the early third-century BCE tragedian Lykophron, the Alexandra is a powerful Greek poem by an unknown author, probably written c. 190, when Rome had defeated Hannibal and the Carthaginians and was poised to humble the Seleukid king Antiochos III. The poem is an ingeniously constructed masterpiece, a generic mix with elements of tragedy, epic, and history.

Priam's beautiful daughter, the prophetic Kassandra, foresees her rape in Athena's temple by the hateful Greek w...