Cassandra and the Bear
Cassandra and the Bear Once upon a time in the city of Babylon, there lived a king and his daughter Cassandra. Cassandra was the most beautiful maiden and most skilled huntress in all of the land, although she was also a liar and a cheat. The king held party after party hoping that she might find a man that wanted to court her. Alas, no such man ever showed up. The Gods, after hearing of her distress, devised a plan to help Cassandra lose her history as a liar and a cheat. A bear had been causing disaster recently in the woods near Babylon and the Gods asked Cassandra to slay it and bring its pelt back to the city. An oracle of Apollo prophesized that if she succeeded on her quest the townspeople would forget about her old reputation and praise her as a hero. Cassandra, wanting to change her reputation, accepted the quest and started out on her journey. At the same time she was also looking for another huntress to take down the bear to spare her the time and danger. After a couple of days, she picked up on the bear’s trail. She also noticed small footprints beside the trail and followed them to a campsite. She discovered that a huntress of Artemis had also been following the bear. Cassandra bribed the girl to bring the pelt back to her so that she could take it to Babylon. A couple of days later, the huntress returned with the pelt along with her blood-stained knife and arrows for Cassandra to give as proof of her kill. Cassandra returned to Babylon with the pelt and showed everyone what she had done. The king threw her a great party in celebration of her success. The Gods arrived at the party and questioned Cassandra about her journey. When she failed to give them all of the details about the bear’s cave and appearance they realized that she had tricked them. Infuriated by Cassandra’s lying they took their anger out on the city of Babylon and the entire rest of the world. As a reminder of Cassandra’s crime, they promised to send great rains upon the Earth