CRESSIDA

the daughter of Calchas in William Shakespeare's dark comedy Troilus and Cressida. In other versions of this story Cressida is a prostitute, but in Shakespeare's play she is not so corrupt. Rather, she is an incorrigible flirt and a fickle lover as evidenced by the easy shifting of her devotion from Troilus to Diomedes. Like Helen, she is vain, silly, and unworthy of the storms that she stirs in the men about her.