Heroides

Synopsis

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.