Heroides

"The "Heroides" ("Her.") (“The Heroines”), or "Epistulae Heroidum" (“Letters of Heroines”), are a collection of fifteen A further set of six poems—widely known as the "Double Heroides" and numbered 16 to 21 in modern scholarly editions—follows these individual letters and presents three separate exchanges of paired epistles: one each from a heroic lover to his absent beloved and from the heroine in return.Arguably some of Ovid's most influential works (see below), one point that has greatly contributed to the mystique of the "Heroides"—and to the reverberations they have produced within the writings of later generations—is directly attributable to Ovid himself. In the third book of his "Ars Amatoria", Ovid makes the claim that, in writing these fictional epistolary poems in the of famous heroines—rather than from a first-person perspective—he created an entirely new literary genre. Recommending parts of his poetic output as suitable reading material to his assumed audience of Roman women, Ovid wrote of his "Heroides", "uel tibi composita cantetur Epistola uoce": | "ignotum hoc aliis ille nouauit opus" ("A.A." 3.345-6: “Or let an Epistle be sung out by you in practiced voice: unknown to others, he ["sc." Ovid] originated this sort of composition”). The full extent of Ovid's originality in this matter has been a point of scholarly contention: E. J. Kenney (University of Cambridge), for instance, notes that “"nouauit" is ambiguous = either ‘invented’ or ‘renewed’, cunningly obscuring without explicitly disclaiming O [vid] 's debt to Propertius' ‘Arethusa’ (4.3) for the original idea.” [Kenney (1996) 1, n. 3.] In spite of various interpretations of Propertius 4.3, consensus nevertheless concedes to Ovid the lion's share of the credit in the thorough exploration of what was, in its time, a highly innovative poetic form. TOCleft | limit=3

Dating and Authenticity

The exact dating of the "Heroides", as with the overall chronology of the Ovidian corpus, remains a matter of debate. As Peter E. Knox (University of Colorado at Boulder) notes, “ [t] here is no consensus about the relative chronology of this ["sc." early] phase of O [vid] 's career,” a position which has not advanced significantly since that comment was made. [Knox (1995) 3.] Exact dating is hindered not only by a lack of evidence, but by the fact that much of what is known at all comes from Ovid's own poetry. One passage in the second book of Ovid's "Amores" ("Am.") has been adduced especially often in this context:
Phyllis, the daughter of Lycurgus, writes to her lover Demophoon, the son of Theseus, king of Athens, after he fails in his promised return from his homeland.

III. Briseis to Achilles

The nymph Oenone writes to Paris, the son of Priam, king of Troy, after he abandons her in order to sail off and abduct (and eventually marry) the acclaimed Helen of Sparta.

VI. Hypsipyle to Jason

* VI. Hypsipyle, queen of Lemnos, to Jason, after he abandoned her for Medea

=VII. Dido to Aeneas=

* VII. Dido to Aeneas, on his departure to Italy

=VIII. Hermione to Orestes=

* VIII. Hermione, daughter of Menelaus, to Orestes, son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, urging him to save her from marriage to Achilles’ son, Pyrrhus

IX. Deianira to Hercules

* IX. Deianira, daughter of Oeneus, king of Aetolia, to her husband Hercules, after he laid down his weapons to be with Iole, the daughter of Eurytus, king of Oechalia

X. Ariadne to Theseus

* X. Ariadne to Theseus after he abandoned her in favour of her sister, Phaedra (see Epistle IV)

XI. Canace to Macareus

* XI. Canace, daughter of Aeolus, to her brother and lover, Macareus, before killing herself following the death of their baby at the hands of their father

XII. Medea to Jason

* XII. Medea to Jason, after he abandoned her to marry Creusa

XIII. Laodamia to Protesilaus

* XIII. Laodamia, the daughter of Acastus, to her husband Protesilaus, urging him not to take too many risks in the Greeks’ attack on Troy

XIV. Hypermnestra to Lynceus

* XIV. Hypermnestra to her husband, Lynceus, calling for him to save her from death at the hands of her father, Danaus

XV. Sappho to Phaon

* XV. Sappho to her ex-lover Phaon, after he left her

Influence

Translations

A translation was made of this work at the end of the fifteenth century by the French poet Octavien de Saint-Gelais, who later became Bishop of Angoulême. In the same century, Juan Rodríguez de la Cámara wrote his "Bursario", a partial translation of the "Heroides".

The Loeb Classical Library combines the "Heroides" with "Amores" in Ovid I. Penguin Books first published Harold Isbell's translation in 1990. Isbell's translation uses unrhymed couplets that generally alternate between eleven and nine syllables. A translation in rhymed couplets by Darryl Hine appeared in 1991.

External links

* [http://www.tonykline.co.uk/klineasheroides.htm Downloadable English Translation]
* [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0061;layout=;loc=1.1;query=toc Perseus/Tufts: Commentary on the "Heroides" of Ovid]

Notes

All notes refer to works listed in the Bibliography, below.

elected Bibliography

For references specifically relating to that subject, please see the relevant bibliography of the Double "Heroides".

Editions

(Texts in Latin)

Commentaries

* Kenney, E. J. (ed.) (1996) "Ovid" Heroides "XVI-XXI" (Cambridge).
* Knox, P. E. (ed.) (1995) "Ovid": Heroides. "Select Epistles" (Cambridge).

Literary Overviews and Textual Criticism

* Anderson, W. S. (1973) “The "Heroides"”, in J. W. Binns (ed.) "Ovid" (London and Boston): 49-83.
* Arena, A. (1995) “Ovidio e l’ideologia augustea: I motivi delle "Heroides" ed il loro significato”, "Latomus" 54.4: 822-41.
* Courtney, E. (1965) “Ovidian and Non-Ovidian "Heroides"”, "Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies of the University of London" ("BICS") 12: 63-6.
* ___. (1998) “Echtheitskritik: Ovidian and Non-Ovidian "Heroides" Again”, CJ 93: 157-66.
* Farrell, J. (1998) “Reading and Writing the "Heroides"”, "Harvard Studies in Classical Philology" ("HSCP") 98: 307-338.
* Fulkerson, L. (2005) "The Ovidian Heroine as Author: Reading, Writing, and Community in the" Heroides (Cambridge).
* Heinze, T. (1991-93) “The Authenticity of Ovid "Heroides" 12 Reconsidered”, "Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies of the University of London" ("BICS") 38: 94-8.
* Jacobson, H. (1974) "Ovid's" Heroides (Princeton).
* Kennedy, D. F. (2002) “Epistolarity: The "Heroides"”, in P. R. Hardie (ed.) "The Cambridge Companion to Ovid" (Cambridge): 217-32.
* Knox, P. E. (1986) “Ovid's "Medea" and the Authenticity of "Heroides" 12”, "Harvard Studies in Classical Philology" ("HSCP") 90: 207-23.
* ___. (2002) “The "Heroides": Elegiac Voices”, in B. W. Boyd (ed.) "Brill's Companion to Ovid" (Leiden): 117-39.
* Lachmann, K. (1876) "Kleinere Schriften zur classischen Philologie", Bd. 2 (Berlin).
* Lindheim, S. (2003) "Mail and Female: Epistolary Narrative and Desire in Ovid's" Heroides (Madison, WI).
* Palmer, A. (ed.) [completed by L.C. Purser (ed.)] (1898) "P. Ovidi Nasonis Heroides", with the Greek translation of Planudes (Oxford).
* Rahn, H. (1963) “Ovids elegische Epistel”, "Antike und Abendland" ("A&A") 7: 105-120.
* Reeve, M. D. (1973) “Notes on Ovid’s "Heroides"”, "Classical Quarterly" ("CQ") 23: 324-338.
* Rosenmeyer, P. A. (1997) “Ovid’s "Heroides" and "Tristia": Voices from Exile”, "Ramus" 26.1: 29-56. [Reprinted in Knox (ed.) (2006): 217-37.]
* Smith, R. A. (1994) “Fantasy, Myth, and Love Letters: Text and Tale in Ovid’s "Heroides"”, "Arethusa" 27: 247-73.
* Spentzou, E. (2003) "Readers and Writers in Ovid’s" Heroides: "Transgressions of Genre and Gender" (Oxford).
* Steinmetz, P. (1987) “Die literarische Form der "Epistulae Heroidum" Ovids”, "Gymnasium" 94: 128-45.
* Stroh, W. (1991) “Heroides Ovidianae cur epistolas scribant”, in G. Papponetti (ed.) "Ovidio poeta della memoria" (Rome): 201-44.
* Verducci, F. (1985) "Ovid’s Toyshop of the Heart" (Princeton).

Analyses of Individual Epistles

* Barchiesi, A. (1995) Review of Hintermeier (1993), "Journal of Roman Studies" ("JRS") 85: 325-7.
* ___. (2001) "Speaking Volumes: Narrative and Intertext in Ovid and Other Latin Poets", eds. and trans. M. Fox and S. Marchesi (London):
** “Continuities”, 9-28. [Translated and reprinted from "Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici" ("MD") 16 (1986).]
** “Narrativity and Convention in the "Heroides"”, 29-48. [Translated and reprinted from "Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici" ("MD") 19 (1987).]
** “Future Reflexive: Two Modes of Allusion and the "Heroides"”, 105-28. [Reprinted from "Harvard Studies in Classical Philology" ("HSCP") 95 (1993).]
* Casali, S. (1992) “Enone, Apollo pastore, e l’amore immedicabile: giochi ovidiani su di un topos elegiaco”, "Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici" ("MD") 28: 85-100.
* Fulkerson, L. (2002^a) “Writing Yourself to Death: Strategies of (Mis)reading in "Heroides" 2”, "Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici" ("MD") 48: 145-65.
* ___. (2002^b) “(Un)Sympathetic Magic: A Study of "Heroides" 13”, "American Journal of Philology" ("AJPh") 123: 61-87.
* ___. (2003) “Chain(ed) Mail: Hypermestra and the Dual Readership of "Heroides" 14”, "Transactions of the American Philological Association" ("TAPA") 133: 123-146.
* Hinds, S. (1993) “Medea in Ovid: Scenes from the Life of an Intertextual Heroine”, "Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici" ("MD") 30: 9-47.
* ___. (1999) “First Among Women: Ovid, and the Traditions of ‘Exemplary’ Catalogue”, in "amor" : "roma", S. M. Braund and R. Mayer (eds.), "Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society" ("PCPS") Supp. 22: 123-42.
* Hintermeier, C. M. (1993) "Die Briefpaare in Ovids Heroides", Palingensia 41 (Stuttgart).
* Jolivet, J.-C. (2001) "Allusion et fiction epistolaire dans" Les Heroïdes: "Recherches sur l'intertextualité ovidienne", Collection de l' École Française de Rome 289 (Rome).
* Kennedy, D. F. (1984) “The Epistolary Mode and the First of Ovid’s "Heroides"”, "Classical Quarterly" ("CQ") n.s. 34: 413-22. [Reprinted in Knox (ed.) (2006): 69-85.]
* Lindheim, S. (2000) “"Omnia Vincit Amor": Or, Why Oenone Should Have Known It Would Never Work Out ("Eclogue" 10 and "Heroides" 5)”, "Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici" ("MD") 44: 83-101.
* Rosati, G. (1991) “Protesilao, Paride, e l’amante elegiaco: un modello omerico in Ovidio”, "Maia" 43.2: 103-14.
* ___. (1992) “L’elegia al femminile: le "Heroides" di Ovidio (e altre heroides)”, "Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici" ("MD") 29: 71-94.
* Vessey, D. W. T. (1976) “Humor and Humanity in Ovid’s "Heroides"”, "Arethusa" 9: 91-110.
* Viarre, S. (1987) “Des poèmes d’Homère aux ‘Heroïdes’ d’Ovide: Le récit épique et son interpretation élégiaque”, "Bulletin de l’association Guillaume Budé" Ser. 4: 3.

cholarship of Tangential Significance

* Armstrong, R. (2005) "Ovid and His Love Poetry" (London) [esp. chs. 2 and 4]
* Hardie, P. R. (2002) "Ovid's Poetics of Illusion" (Cambridge).
* Holzberg, N. (1997) “Playing with his Life: Ovid's 'Autobiographical' References”, "Lampas" 30: 4-19. [Reprinted in Knox (ed.) (2006): 51-68.]
* ___. (2002) "Ovid: The Poet and His Work", trans. G. M. Goshgarian (Ithaca, NY and London).
* James, S. L. (2003) "Learned Girls and Male Persuasion: Gender and Reading in Roman Love Elegy" (Berkeley). [esp. ch. 5]
* Kauffman, L. S. (1986) "Discourses of Desire: Gender, Genre, and Epistolary Fictions" (Ithaca, NY).
* Knox, P. E. (ed.) (2006) "Oxford Readings in Ovid" (Oxford and New York).