Product Description

In the twenty-one poems of the Heroides, Ovid gave voice to the heroines and heroes of epic and myth. These deeply moving literary epistles reveal the happiness and torment of love, as the writers tell of their pain at separation, forgiveness of infidelity or anger at betrayal. The faithful Penelope wonders at the suspiciously long absence of Ulysses, while Dido bitterly reproaches Aeneas for too eagerly leaving her bed to follow his destiny, and Sappho – the only historical figure portrayed here – describes her passion for the cruelly rejecting Phaon. In the poetic letters between Paris and Helen the lovers seem oblivious to the tragedy prophesied for them, while in another exchange the youthful Leander asserts his foolhardy eagerness to risk his life to be with his beloved Hero.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #132606 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-25
• Original language: Latin
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

About the Author
Publius Ovidius Naso was born in 43 BC at Sumo in Central Italy. He was expelled from Rome by the emperor Augustus in AD 8 for some unknown offence. He published poetry throughout his life. Harold Isbell is a renowned translator.

Customer Reviews

Mythology becomes 'real'.
Publius Ovidius Naso was born in 43 B.C. and died in 18 A.D.
Emperor Augustus banished him - for unknown reasons - to Tomi ( a barren place near the coast of the Black Sea ). A few scholars believe that this was a literary hoax created by Ovidius himself.

With 'Heroides' ( Legendary Women ) Ovidius goes against the tradition where only men were allowed to complain in literary fiction about their ill fortune and human cruelty.
These women are all characters from the greek mythology like Briseis (Trojan war), Hermione the daughter of Helen and even Sappho as heroine in the legend where she commits suicide by jumping from a cliff into the sea.

Ovidius turned these women from rather abstract mythological characters into 'real' persons who could be recognized as such by the audience or the readers of Ovidius' work

Couldn't be more highly recommended.
This is an excellent edition of an essential book by the best of the Roman poets (in my humble opinion, of course). Not only is the Heroides an entertaining and very easy-to-read collection of letters, but there is plenty of information provided should you be unfamiliar with any of the myths. Ovid explores the emotional and psychological nature of the principle characters of famous tales of lovers from ancient Greece and Rome, often retaining his renowned sense of playful irony and satire. I would highly recommend this book to anyone even vaguely interested in the literature of the ancient world.