Lysimachus's Love for and Marriage to Cassandra

Lysimachus’s love for Cassandra turns an arranged marriage into the motive for a wedding-day raid, and the raid ultimately leads to their marriage. The story links private desire to public violence: when Cassandra’s family agrees that she will marry Ormisdas, Lysimachus decides that only carrying her off can preserve his hope of marrying her. He recruits the imprisoned Cimon, and the two men escape to Crete with Cassandra and Iphigenia. There they marry the women; after exile and a settlement brokered by their relatives, Lysimachus and Cassandra return to Rhodes and live together happily for many years.

Love Against an Arranged Match

Cassandra is a fair and noble young woman whose marriage to Ormisdas, brother of Pasimondas, has been under negotiation for a long time. The match has repeatedly been interrupted by misfortune, leaving Lysimachus with the hope that Ormisdas might never take her as his wife. Lysimachus loves Cassandra ardently, but the settlement of the negotiations closes off that hope: Pasimondas arranges for his brother and Cassandra to marry on the same day as his own wedding to Iphigenia.

The news deeply displeases Lysimachus. He considers carrying Cassandra away, but hesitates because he holds an office and judges the act more dishonorable for a man in his position. After prolonged deliberation, love overcomes that reservation. The decisive choice is his; the account describes his desire and reasoning, but does not give Cassandra’s own perspective on the decision before the abduction.

The Alliance with Cimon

Lysimachus turns to Cimon, who is imprisoned with his companions after an earlier abduction attempt. He regards Cimon as a particularly trustworthy ally. In their private meeting, Lysimachus presents Cimon’s setbacks and imprisonment as tests of his character and promises to reveal a welcome opportunity if Cimon regains his former resolve. Cimon agrees to help without hesitation, making the two men’s separate desires the basis of a joint plan.

Lysimachus sets the raid for the third day, when the newly married women are to enter their husbands’ houses for the first time. He proposes that Cimon and his companions, armed beneath their clothes, join him and his own trusted friends. They will seize the women from among the wedding guests and take them to a ship prepared in secret; Lysimachus expects them to kill anyone who tries to stop them. Cimon remains in prison until the appointed day.

The Wedding-Day Raid and Flight

The two weddings fill Pasimondas’s house with guests and celebration. Lysimachus divides the armed party into three groups: one goes secretly to the harbor to secure the ship’s departure, another waits at the door to keep the raiders from being trapped inside, and the remaining men accompany him and Cimon upstairs. In the dining hall, where the brides sit among the other women, they overturn tables, take Cassandra and Iphigenia, and pass them to their companions to be carried to the ship. The sudden seizure turns the wedding feast into a scene of crying, shouting, and confusion.

As Lysimachus, Cimon, and their companions make for the stairs, Pasimondas confronts them with a cudgel. Cimon strikes him on the head and kills him; when Ormisdas runs to his brother’s aid, Cimon kills him as well. The companions wound or beat back others who approach. They reach the waiting ship and escape with the women as armed rescuers arrive at the shore. The violence gives the escape its immediate success, but also makes the act a public rupture that must later be settled.

Marriage and Return

In Crete, friends and relatives receive the fugitives joyfully. Lysimachus marries Cassandra there, while Cimon marries Iphigenia, and both couples celebrate their unions. The account thus presents the raid not as the final state of the relationship but as the route by which Lysimachus and Cassandra become husband and wife.

Their departure provokes prolonged outcry and disputes in both Cyprus and Rhodes. Eventually, relatives and friends intervene in each place and arrange a settlement after a period of exile. Cimon returns to Cyprus with Iphigenia, while Lysimachus returns to Rhodes with Cassandra. The narrative closes their story in domestic permanence: each man lives for many years with the woman he had carried away. Cassandra’s marriage to Lysimachus therefore concludes in lasting happiness, though the account reaches that ending through a coercive abduction, lethal resistance, and a later reconciliation between their communities.