Further Selections from Ovid Heroides: An Edition for Intermediate Students

This is a new intermediate-student edition of a selection from Ovid's Heroides. Heroides I, lines 1-68, and Heroides VII, lines 1-140, are included as Latin text, with an accompanying commentary and vocabulary. Focusing on a deliberately concise extract from the original, this edition is designed to be manageable for students reading the text for the first time while also perfectly encapsulating the interest of the longer work and inspiring further study of it. A detailed introduction explains points of historical and stylistic interest.

Ovid's Heroides is a unique collection of poetry, in which famous mythological heroines write letters to the men who have abandoned them. They offer a new perspective on the otherwise male-centred mythological tradition. Heroides I (from Penelope) and VII (from Dido) respond to the most famous Classical epics, Homer's Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid, by presenting a new, less positive, angle on the two famous epic heroes. Through his heroines' unique voices, Ovid plays with literary tradition, inviting us all to take a side: epic heroism or loyalty in love?