What complaints did Penelope have about Odysseus, who was absent for twenty consecutive years? What did Dido’s letter to Aeneas, who left her and set off for Italy, contain? In what language was Briseis’s letter to Achilles written? How much love or hatred was included in Medea’s letter to Jason? What did Hypsipyle, Medea's rival, write in her own letter to Jason? Did Phaedra’s letter to Hippolytus cost her life? Did Laodamia know that the newlywed Protesilaus, to whom she was writing a letter, was already dead? Where did Ariadne find writing materials in the deserted Naxos to write a letter to Theseus, who abandoned her?

Answers to these and many other strange and unexpected questions can be found by reading the Heroides of Ovid (43 BC – 17 AD), a collection of fifteen imaginative poetic letters sent by famous women of myth to their loved ones. This book represents the first metrical modern Greek translation of the Heroides (1-15) in its entirety, accompanied by an informative introduction and detailed interpretive comments.

Contents

Foreword

Introduction: A. Publius Ovidius Naso, life and works

The Heroides (Ηρωίδες)

Text – Translation

Comments

Bibliography

Index