The Luxury of Long-Lost Love Letters (from lovers like Leander and a Lyrnessian...): A Review of Ovid's 'Heroides'

'Dicere quae puduit, scribere iussit amor'

What modesty forbade me to say, love has commanded me to write...

Ovid's Heroides is, among many other things, an unprecedented gem of ancient literature. Rather than the epic tales of (male) heroes and their wars, this series of poetic letters devotes its entire attention to the correspondences and internal, private deliberations of mythology's heroines: their loves, complaints, and laments.

Throughout the course of twenty-one love letters, ranging from patient Penelope to unfortunate Dido, from the sorceress Medea to the lesser-known Laodamia, from the (actually historical) Lesbian poetess, Sappho, to the proto-Romeo & Juliet duo: Hero and Leander, the reader gets to enjoy the Other side of the narrative: the women at home either worrying for their partners or, as is just deserts, judiciously berating them for their tardiness and mistreatment.

Both comic and moving, heart-breaking and (satisfyingly) vindictive, the Heroides is replete with a colourful array of individuals. Of course, Ovid is merely making-up such "lost letters", but, rather than being some poor fanfic, the heroine letters are inspiring and immensely imaginative in their construction of scene and emotion. One would not be surprised were Penelope to have written such a letter to Odysseus: 'Just remember, I was a young girl when you left;/if you came at once you would find an old woman.', or Briseis to Achilles: 'But your deeds have already [killed me] ... I will join my family,/my brothers and husband, and I will leave you/with the shame that you left me to die.'

The letters do not form a needless addition to the traditional heroic stories, but allow for their gratifying completion. Despite the non-reality of the letters, they do feel real; they resonate.

The Heroides, not nearly as famous as his Metamorphoses or Amores, is nonetheless Ovid at the height of his craft.