“‘If Apollo spits into your mouth,’ she told me solemnly, ‘that means you have the gift to predict the future. But know one will believe you.” (Pg.23)

Evelyn De Morgan. Cassandra. 1898.           Satire on Rape of Cassandra
                                                                                      amphora

John William Waterhouse. Consulting the Oracle. 1884.

About the painting: In this painting Waterhouse depicts a "semicircle of woman seeking the prophecies of the Teraph (a human skull), and the figure of the priestess as she 'interprets its decree with terror'..... The Illustrated London News described it as one of the principal works of the year and engraved it across two pages of an extra supplement: it was bought by Sir Henry Tate and is one of the four Waterhouse pictures in the Tate Gallery."
Source: Anthony Hobson, J W Waterhouse, 1989, p.34

Frederic Leighton. Invocation.

“You pay for journeys to the underworld, which is full of shapes no one is prepared to meet. I howled. Wallowed in my own filth. Scratched up my face, would not let anyone near me. I had the strength of three men—inconceivable what counterforce had subdued it until now. I climbed the cold walls of my room, from which everything had been removed but a pile of twigs. I ate with my fingers like an animal. My hair stood out matted and filthy around my head.” (Pg.61)

“The “we” that I clung to grew transparent , feeble, more and more unprepossessing, and consequently, I was more and more out of touch with my “I.” Yet other people had established my identity, to them it was clear: I was a prophetess and interpreter of dreams. An authority figure. When their future prospects looked bleak, when their own helplessness afflicted them, they came to me.” (Pg. 94)
 
Frederic Leighton. Solitude.                                                                                                       Greek Gem Impressions