Cassandra appears in The Fall of Troy, sometimes called Posthomerica, by Quintus of Smyrna. She appears in books 12, 13, and 14. She, like many of the other women in this epic, is objectified and abused. Cassandra is used as a symbol of doom and destruction. Despite her ability to foresee the Fall of Troy, disaster is imminent when she appears. In fact, John Noell Moore describes Cassandra as a symbol for doomed marriages because of her relationship with Apollo. Book 12 starts amidst the Trojan War. Odysseus suggests that they build a large, wooden horse in order to conceal their soldiers. Laocoon knows that the horse contains Greek soldiers, but Athena prevents him from warning the Trojans. As the Trojans make sacrifices, bad omens begin to surface. Alters have collapsed; drink turn to blood, statues weep, and other bizarre, supernatural things occur. Cassandra appears to be the only one who takes notice; she warns the Trojans that they must burn the wooden horse. Unfortunately, the Trojans disregard her warnings. She’s described as having “one heart was steadfast, and one soul clear-eyed.” (Smyrna, 556) She has a very powerful gift of prophecy and sees evil forces falling upon the city of Troy. She is compared to a lion, running about and screaming of the city of Troy’s impending fall. Here, she embodies pure terror and doom. “Her neck writhed, like a sapling in the wind shaken, as moaned and shrieked that noble maid” (Smyrna, 565) It appears that no one takes her omens seriously and she tries to convince everyone to burn the wooden horse, but unfortunately no one believes her. She tries to take matters into her own hands and burn the horse herself but is unable to do so. She exhibits determination and will by attempting to respond to her prophecy and prevent their downfall; however, her failure to destroy the horse demonstrates her powerlessness as a woman. Cassandra is often objectified and treated very poorly; she is never believed, she is captured, and is raped by Ajax. As the Greeks take over Troy, they take many captive women, one of which is Cassandra. These women are objectified and depicted as prizes of war. While sailing back, the Trojan women captives look at Cassandra in awe. They realize that Cassandra had predicted the Troy’s downfall. “Now on Cassandra marvelling they gazed, calling to mind her prophecy of doom” (Smyrnaeus, 430) Despite being objectified and abused, Cassandra finally is seen as powerful. She also appears to have favor of the gods. Athena, angry that Ajax raped Cassandra in her temple, causes a storm and destroys Ajax’s ship, sending him in the water. This is significant as it illustrates that Cassandra is a character of importance, not just a captive. Throughout, Cassandra appears to be correlated with doom; wherever she goes, disaster strikes.