Ovid: Heroides

Ovid's Heroides ('Letters from Heroines') are one of the most remarkable works of classical literature. Written towards the end of the first century BCE, they take the form of verse letters written for the most part by mythological women to the men who have mistreated them. While these letters cannot give us the voices of actual women, they are the result of a remarkable feat of imagination: they embody a male poet's attempt to represent and understand the thoughts and feelings of women in moments of crisis. Familiar from canonical works of literature, especially epic and tragedy, the heroines question the assumptions embedded in the works from which they come and offer critique of the patriarchal idea that female sexuality is problematic and needs to be subjected to male control. This volume presents an edited selection of letters written from the perspective of eight of the best-known women in Greco-Roman mythology: Briseis, Phaedra, Hypsipyle, Dido, Hermione, Deianira, Ariadne, and Medea. P. J. Davis's Introduction for the general reader pays particular attention to such matters as the poems' authenticity, their status as letters, and their relationship to other forms of Roman love elegy. The letters are presented in Latin, based on printed editions, with English translations to clarify the surface meaning of the Latin. The poems are accompanied by a detailed and accessible commentary, with all quotations from ancient Greek and modern languages being translated.

P. J. Davis taught Classics at the University of Tasmania for over thirty years. He is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide.