What is the importance of the mythological character, Cassandra, in the book, After Sappho?

The prophetess Cassandra acts as a symbol of insight and clarity in After Sappho. In Greek mythology, Apollo dooms Cassandra to deliver true prophecies but to never be believed. The collective narrator in the novel continually invokes Cassandra, at one point noting that Virginia Woolf “invented a Cassandra for 1914. Cassandra was the one who saw everything and instead of sighing, screamed” (151). Schwartz depicts Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries as a deeply discriminatory and oppressive space for queer people. The narrator repeatedly uses Cassandra as an example of clarity and truthfulness in the face of a hateful culture; unlike many institutions and individual citizens (who choose to hate or ignore queer people), Cassandra “saw everything” (151).