每日一词学英语(13): Cassandra

最近股市虽然牛气冲天，但很多人对此持一种谨慎的态度，比如今天的The Times Online上有人发表署名文章：This bullish spirit may lack legs for the long run 近期牛市可能好景不长
Two paragraphs are excerpted as follows:

There is certainly no shortage of eager Cassandras around ready to warn that the present round of fireworks will soon fizzle. The gloom-mongers expect the recent upward march of shares to amount to no more than a “bear market rally”, with resurgence seen as all but certain to give way to renewed slump - just as happened repeatedly in the Great Depression.

The pessimists could yet be vindicated. Yet, in the short term, there are some convincing reasons to be rather more hopeful. Over the past month or more, an initial trickle of indications that the global downturn has finally bottomed out has swollen into a torrent.

这些持谨慎甚至悲观态度的人就是Cassandra: somebody who makes predictions which are never believed but turn out to be true. 文章中对Cassandras的解释在第二段第一句，指"the pessimists yet to be vindicated". Cassandra是希腊神话中的女预言家。这种用法有点像中文里的“诸葛亮”，典故变成了新词汇。不过诸葛亮料事如神人人信，Cassandra料事如神却没人信她。

上世纪the Great Depression时大概出过不少Cassandras，但愿这次的预言家们不是Cassandras。