Cassandra's Swan Song: Aeschylus' Use of Fable in Agamemnon.

A criticism is presented of the ancient Greek play "Agamemnon," by Aeschylus, in which the author argues that the play's prophetic character Cassandra's reference to a swan song, that is, a lament that a swan sings before its death, has its origins in a lost poem or tragic play. The author examines other tragedies including Sophocles' "Antigone" and Euripides' "Electra," as well as instances of Greek fables collected by the Greek scholar F. R. Adrados in "Index Fabularum."