Ovid’s Heroides
Ovid:
•Born in 43.B.C. to a family of Equestrian class in a town east of Rome.
•Educated in Rome to be a public speaker, turned to the pursuit of
composing poetry instead.
•8 A.D.: Exiled along with Augustus’ granddaughter, Julia, for ‘carmen et
error’. He never returns to Rome but professes his love for the city in his
Tristia.
•His Ars Amatoria describes the private lives of individuals in the
Augustan era.
•The Heroides instead looks at love through famous figures from
mythology. This demonstrates two different ways of tackling the theme
of love in poetry.
•His Heroides talk about ‘love’ in a different way to his other poetry such
as his Amores. The Heroides depict a truer love, not just a sexual love.
Inspiration for the Heroides:
•In one work by Propertius (a contemporary of Ovid) he writes a short
verse in the form of a letter from a woman called Arethusa to her lover
Lycotas which reminds us of the Heroides.
•Propertius does not write a letter between fictional characters, rather
the letter is between two real people.
•There are no other collections of fictional verse epistles that we know
of.
•Propertius 4.3:
“Arethusa sends this message to her Lycotas: if you can be mine,
when you are so often absent. Still, if any part you wish
to read is smeared, that blot will have been made by my tears: or if any
letter puzzles you by its wavering outline, it will be the sign of my now
fading hand.”
The Reader and Writer in the Heroides:
•The are two intended readers in the Heroides: the reader of the poem,
and the internal reader of the letter, the character to whom the letter is
addressed.
•The external reader has superior knowledge to the internal reader. For
example Oenone warns Paris that his union with Helen will lead to bad
things, but the external reader knows that the consequence is the
Trojan War.
•There are also two writers: Ovid and the heroines. We hear Ovid’s voice
throughout, particularly in the emotion he gives to the heroines.
•However sometimes the overlap of the two writers presents a
disconnect. In Briseis’ epistle she claims to have ‘Barbarian writing’ on
tear-splattered paper; whilst the external reader is presented with a
carefully presented print form written in elegiac couplets.
Why Write in the Feminine Voice?
•The female as the subject was uncommon in literary culture.
•In Ars Amatoria he suggests women should write love letters in plain style,
and that they should smuggle their letters as it was a shameful thing.
•Whereas men should be deceptive in their letters; we see each of the male
characters in the Heroides displaying this deception.
•The first line of Penelope to Ulysses has Penelope claim that she should write
and he should read, thus establishing the epistolary form.
•Paris carving Oenone’s name into a poplar tree is the one time a man writes in
the Heroides- but his writing is deceitful.
•Penelope gives a copy of her letter to everyone she meets, and so the form is
an uncertain and wayward one.
•There are references to the fact they are physically writing throughout the
Heroides.
•The emotion of the heroine is the crux of each poem, as he uses familiar
stories so he doesn’t have to concern himself with retelling them.
•The female subject allows the heroines to tell their own stories based on what
they deem important, claim who is to blame and tell of what the heroes will
miss out.
The Monotony of Subject:
•Each poem focuses on a heroine pining for her lost love.
•There is much repetition in the epistles, and the reader comes to
expect the same sequence of events and laments in each.
•Drawing a wide variety of myths into a single stereotype in this way
allows the reader to consider a wide variety of different stories under
the same context.
•This stereotype of the lamenting female lover allows Ovid to make fun
and exploit it in each new scenario.
•The form of the whole collection is quite original. It not only offers us
the underdeveloped female voice; but also allows us to appreciate old
myths in a new light, such as hearing Penelope’s voice, and to hear from
forgotten characters, such as Oenone.
•This is a very modern way of looking at the myths, as can be seen by
looking at Margaret Atwood’s Penelopiad- the subject of which must be
inspired by Ovid’s Heroides.
Plot Summaries:
Penelope to Ulysses:
•Penelope: Daughter of Icarius. She preserved her chastity during the
long absence of Ulysses, by refusing the solicitations of a vast swathe of
suitors. Her husband finally returned and released her from this
constant persecution.
•Ulysses: Son of Laertes of Ithaca. He is famous for his brains and his
ability to trick others. He went to fight the Trojan War, and endured 10
years of ‘hardships, fighting off various creatures and slept with various
goddesses. He eventually returns to Penelope.
Plot Summaries:
Penelope to Ulysses:
•1-10: Penelope, the wife of Ulysses, writes to ask his husband to come
home after the fall of Troy.
•11-36: She writes of her fears about what may have happened to him.
•47-58: She questions the worth of the Trojan War and questions where
Ulysses might be.
•59-75: She tells of how she has sent many letters to people in order to
find out about his fate.
•76-80: She fears that he has found a new woman.
•81-96: She writes about the suitors who pressure her into marriage
each and every day.
•97-107: She laments that only her, Laertes and Telemachus remain, and
that only the nurse, shepherd and swineheard remain faithful.
•107-end: She asks him to return for the sake of their son, Telemachus.
Plot Summaries:
Oenone to Paris:
•Oenone: A mountain nymph and first wife of Paris. They married young
and she gave birth to their son Corynthus. Upon Paris running off with
Helen she predicted the Trojan war and send Corynthus to guide the
Greeks to Troy. After the war Paris returned to her wounded, begging to
be healed. She cast him out with scorn and he died. She was remorseful,
still loving him, and threw herself atop his funeral pyre.
•Paris: A son of King Priam who had been exposed because his mother
dreamt he would lead to the downfall of Troy. He was rescued by the
herdsmen Agelaus and became a Shepherd. As a shepherd he fell in love
with Oenone on the slopes of Mount Ida, and they married. He later
met Helen and bad stuff happened.
Plot Summaries:
Oenone to Paris:
•1-8: Oenone laments that Paris has abandoned her.
•9-32: Oenone tells of all she has done for Paris in their life together.
•33-52: She speaks about how awful their final day was together, and
how Paris was sad to leave her.
•53-60: She watches as Paris’ ship sails away.
•61-76: She delights as Paris returns, but upon noticing Helen on board
with him, she wishes for her to feel the same grief Oenone now feels.
•77-88: She reminds him of how she loved him when he was poor.
•89-112: She warns Paris about Helen and foreshadows the war that will
follow.
•113-134: She remembers Cassandra’s warning of Helen’s coming, and
slanders Helen by discussing her previous relationship with Theseus.
•135-end: She claims she can be cured by no medicine, only the love of
Paris.
Plot Summaries:
Dido to Aeneas:
Dido: She was raised in Tyre and fled to North Africa following the
murder of her husband by King Pygmalion. Arriving here and founded a
new city which became the powerful Carthage. Upon Aeneas arriving in
Carthage, they fell in love with each other due to Juno and Venus’
manipulations. Aeneas had to leave due to a message from Mercury.
Dido sees him leaving, curses the future relationship of Rome and
Carthage, and commits suicide.
Aeneas: A Trojan who managed to escape the destruction of Troy. After
6 years of wandering Aeneas and his men find themselves at Troy. He
lived there happily with Dido for a while, until he was told to carry on
with his journey to Italy which results in the foundations being set for
the coming of Rome.
Plot Summaries:
Dido to Aeneas:
•1-6: She states she is confronting Aeneas.
•7-22: She tries to persuade him not to leave Carthage for Italy.
•23-44: She pities her position without him and threaten to kills herself
should he leave.
•45-72: She feels deceived by him and casts aspersions on his character.
•73-86: She warns him he could die at sea and thus abandon his two
remaining relatives, Iulus and Ascanius.
•87-96: She remembers how loving she was to accept him.
•97-110: She regrets that she ever trusted him.
•111-132: She tells of her story about how she became Queen.
•133-180: She asks him to choose Carthage not Italy for a new Troy, and
asks her to stay for the sake of their unborn baby.
•181-end: She says if he does not do this then he has decided her fate:
She will kill herself.
Plot Summaries:
Ariadne to Theseus:
Ariadne: The daughter of Minos, king of Crete. Minos had sacked
Athens and demanded 7 young men and women would be sacrificed to
the Minotaur each year. Theseus was one of these one year. Ariadne fell
in love with him upon seeing him, and gave him a sword and a ball of
thread to help him kill the Minotaur. After this Theseus and Ariadne
eloped together. Theseus abandoned her sleeping on Naxos, and
Dionysus later weds her.
Theseus: Amythical founder king of Athens and son of King Aegeus. As a
young man he volunteered to go to Crete on the third year of annual
sacrifice to stop this practice. Upon killing the Minotaur he escaped with
the young Athenian and Ariadne. Athena told him to leave her, and so
he returned to Athens in distress.
Plot Summaries:
Ariadne to Theseus:
•1-16: She tells of how she woke up in their bed one morning and
Theseus was no longer there.
•17-58: She searches the whole island of Naxos for him, and not finding
him descends into pitiful crying.
•59-74: She claims she is alone on this island with nowhere to go and
nothing to do.
•75-98: She suffers because he has abandoned her, and she is left alone,
without defence from man or beast.
•99-110: She laments the death of Androgeos, her brother, at Athens.
•111-118: She says sleep, wind and Theseus’ pledge all plotted against
her.
•119-132: She asks if Theseus will remember her when being adored by
the Athenians.
•133-end: She says it is unfair for him to cause her death by leaving, and
asks for him to come back to her.