first to come to mind is cassandra of troy from greek myth, who was
cursed with prescience. she could see the future, but she could convince
no one. read a summary of her story at
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/cassandra.htm
the second one is not very well known -- mrs. anerton from edith
wharton's short story "the muse's tragedy." what follows is a summary
of the story stolen from a random website. the full text can be
found at
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgibin/browse-mixed?id=WhaMuse&tag=public
&images=images/modeng&data=/lv1/Archive/eng-parsed
-x
"Danyers is a great admirer of the late poet Vincent Rendle, about
whose work Danyers had written an excellent study. One of the most
distinguished of Rendle's works is the Sonnets to Silvia. As a
widespread rumor holds, Silvia is actually Mrs. Anerton, with whom
Rendle presumably had a secret love affair. Danyers has a strong desire
to meet this woman who had been such an inspiration for the famous
poet. Once, during a vacation in Italy, Danyers happens by chance to
run into Mrs. Anerton, who is now widowed, living a lonely life.
Through their long conversations about Rendle's poetry, Danyers and
Mrs. Anerton quickly become close friends. At the end of the holidays,
they decide to meet again in a month, ostensibly so that Danyers can
start writing a book on Rendle with the help of Mrs. Anerton. This
project, however, is more an excuse for them to see each other again.
The last part of the story consists of a long letter that Mrs. Anerton
has written to Danyers, and from which we discover that when they
actually met in Venice, they spent a wonderful time-not once mentioning
the dead poet. At the end of their stay, Danyers had asked Mrs. Anerton
to marry him, and in this letter she explains why she cannot accept his
offer. Mrs. Anerton confesses that contrary to widespread belief, there
was never anything but friendship between her and Rendle; she had never
been Rendle' s lover, although she had been very much in love with him.
Since she never was Silvia, the object of Rendle's love, she cannot
accept Danyers' proposal; although she is very much taken by him,
Danyers cannot take the place of the unattainable love object that
Rendle was."
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