Heroides
Ovid's collection of fictional verse letters written by mythological heroines to the lovers who abandoned them
The Meaning of Heroides
The Heroides, composed by Ovid in the late first century BCE, is a collection of elegiac epistles imagined as letters from famous women of Greek myth to their absent lovers or husbands. Penelope writes to the long-absent Odysseus, Briseis pleads with Achilles, Dido reproaches Aeneas, Ariadne cries out from Naxos to Theseus, and Medea warns Jason of the consequences of betrayal. Later additions include paired letters — exchanges between Paris and Helen, Hero and Leander, Acontius and Cydippe. The collection is revolutionary in its approach: by giving voice to women who are typically secondary characters in epic tradition, Ovid reframes the great myths from the perspective of those who suffer the consequences of heroic ambition. The emotional range spans from tender longing to bitter accusation to desperate grief. The Heroides influenced medieval and Renaissance literature profoundly, inspiring Chaucer's Legend of Good Women and shaping the epistolary tradition in European letters.
Parents
None recorded
Symbols
Fun Fact
The Heroides was the first literary work in Western tradition to systematically give voice to the silent women of mythology
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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