Abydos
An ancient city on the Hellespont famous as the launching point of Xerxes' bridge and the home of Leander
The Story of Abydos
Abydos sat on the Asian shore of the Hellespont, the narrow strait separating Europe from Asia, at the point where the channel is barely a mile wide. Its mythological fame rests on the tragic love story of Hero and Leander: each night, Leander of Abydos swam the Hellespont to visit Hero, a priestess of Aphrodite who lived in a tower at Sestos on the European shore, guided by a lamp she placed in her window. One stormy winter night the wind extinguished the flame, and Leander, lost in the dark waters, drowned. When Hero discovered his body washed ashore at dawn, she threw herself from her tower. The tale became one of antiquity's most celebrated love stories, retold by Ovid, Musaeus, and later by Marlowe and Byron. Historically, Abydos gained additional fame when Xerxes built his bridge of boats across the Hellespont here in 480 BCE to invade Greece — an act of hubris that Aeschylus dramatised in the Persians as the king's attempt to chain the sea itself.
Parents
None recorded
Symbols
Fun Fact
Lord Byron famously swam the Hellespont in 1810 to prove that Leander's nightly crossing from Abydos was physically possible
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
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