Cassiphone

Cassiphone (Κασσιφόνη ) is a minor figure in Greek mythology, the daughter of the sorceress-goddess Circe and the Trojan War hero Odysseus. She is mentioned in passing in the works of Lycophron and the Byzantine scholar John Tzetzes.

Etymology
Cassiphone's name is a compound word that translates to "brother killer", from the words κάσις (kásis) meaning both "brother" and "sister", and φόνος (phónos) meaning "murder, manslaughter".

Mythology
Cassiphone is alluded to in obscure lines in Hellenistic poet Lycophron's Alexandra, with an explanation provided in the commentary of Byzantine scholar John Tzetzes, who is the only one to mention her name; she is most likely a late classical or Hellenistic invention, whose only purpose is to expand on the myth of Telegonus. Lycophron writes:

"When he is dead, Perge, hill of the Tyrrhenians, shall receive his ashes in the land of Gortyn; when, as he breathes out his life, he shall bewail the fate of his son and his wife, whom her husband shall slay and himself next pass to Hades, his throat cut by the hands of his sister, the own cousin of Glaucon and Apsyrtus."

According to Tzetzes, Cassiphone is the daughter Odysseus had by Circe with whom he spent one year together during his travels to get back home to Ithaca following the end of the Trojan War. The story of the Telegony goes that when her full-brother Telegonus left in search of his father he accidentally ended up killing him, having not recognised him. Telegonus then married Odysseus's widow Penelope, while Circe married Telemachus, Odysseus's son by Penelope.

According to Lycophron and Tzetzes, Circe then brought Odysseus back to life who proceeded to wed Cassiphone to Telemachus, her half-brother. Telemachus then killed Circe after a quarrell with her, prompting Cassiphone to kill Telemachus as she avenged her mother. Odysseus then died of grief after witnessing those acts.