Heroides (Penguin Classics)

Can't wait for the next book by this dynamic author. Really amazing book!

Best version ever

Many are acquainted with the Metamorphosis, but this work by Ovid is less celebrated. A beautiful bit of heartfelt writing, the Heroides is a collection of letters that Ovid imagines would have been written by tormented lovers to the ones they love, if they had a chance to write a letter. He uses well known figures from mythology, such as Paris and Helen, as his inspiration. A good book for those who enjoy love poetry and classical mythology.

Suppose your mother was Helen of Troy, the "face that launched 1000 ships," etc. Of course everyone knows her. In today's language, she is the superstar. She famously abandoned you for a lover, which ignited a long, long war. You of course recognize your beautiful mother when you see her, but she asks which one is her daughter. Ovid always personalizes mythology. He was a Roman poet living during the time of Christ and exiled by the Emperor Augustus for inflammatory and erotic poetry. (Augustus found his rebellious daughter had Ovid's latest book.) "Metamorphoses" (Transformations) is a larger and greater collection than this, but in "Heroides" Ovid writes a collection of 21 letters from famous lovers (including Helen's daughter, Hermione). In first person, the myths become very personal, and sometimes there is a letter with a reply from the other lover. It is true that the Roman gods' and heroes' stories are as entangled and complicated as those of the Marvel super-heroes. However, the translator, Harold Isbell, provides all of the back stories in clear prose. Think of this as a book of short stories that you can pick up and browse as you want, and I think you will enjoy it more. You will hear from Penelope, Helen, Paris, Sappho (a poet), Leander, etc. They explore love, at times the sort of legal and human rights issues involved, but of course also explore the raw emotions involved. For example, Medea writes to Jason that though she hates herself for being "concerned for the good of a faithless husband", she does not know where her present anger will take her. "Let that be in the care of the god that prods me; I do not know for certain what is in my soul." Well, it wasn't very pretty what Medea did to Jason. If you want to be privy to intense conversation, it is hard to imagine letters being more personal that these.

I recommend this interesting book for everyone who is intersted in the "classical Greek & Roman world". However, I prefer to read it in the original Latin texts. And if you don't read the ancient Latin language well, I suggest you to read a volume(no.225) of the Loeb Classical Library.

I'm reading this to make up for the fact that I basically blew off the reading for the course Literature Humanities when I was a student at Columbia University. It's on the reading list, or at least it was for the semester for which I found a syllabus. This book is pretty dull. It's a bunch of letters from various characters in Greek history/mythology (the line is blurry). It's not interesting. There are no clever insights. It's not funny. It's not exciting. It's not moving. I don't understand why Ovid wrote it, or why people are impressed by it. On the up side, it's not the hellish torture of The Aeneid (possibly the most boring and long-winded book in Western literature). I've read three letters. The characters who wrote them are Briseis, Penelope, and Phaedra. They feel rejected by men. Nothing here you can't get from a Taylor Swift song. I assume the letters are more interesting if you're fluent in Latin, you read the original text, and you know absolutely everything about Greek literature. There must be some reason people like this book. I was unable to discern it.

I must confess I had hoped for a more vivid description of the heroines' feelings and thoughts. However, the fact that a male author considered these women worthy of a whole volume is remarkable, considering the time in which it was written.

This is an effective translation. These letters are a great idea well carried out. Almost all of the letters have some excellent turn of phrase, use of language or great idea, and sometimes a mixture of all three. This deserves to be better known.

If you love Greek Mythology, and want to read more a different perspective- then Euripides is the one for you. This proto-feministic writing will introduce and reintroduce you to various characters that you have known from The Odyssey and so on.

This is an excellent edition of an essential book by the best of the Roman poets (in my humble opinion, of course). Not only is the Heroides an entertaining and very easy-to-read collection of letters, but there is plenty of information provided should you be unfamiliar with any of the myths. Ovid explores the emotional and psychological nature of the principle characters of famous tales of lovers from ancient Greece and Rome, often retaining his renowned sense of playful irony and satire. I would highly recommend this book to anyone even vaguely interested in the literature of the ancient world.

I needed to get a copy of this on a Bank Holiday weekend for an assignment, it did the job, was instantaneous and hopefully helped me pass my module :)

Surprising read, Ovid writes fictional letters from the female point of view of found in Greek myths. These include Helen, Penelope, Madea, Dido, Ariadne.