P. Ovidius Naso, The Heroides

The Heroides, or Letters of Heroines, is a collection of twenty-one fictional letters composed by the famous Augustan poet Ovid (43 BC-AD 17/18). It is a widely read work of elegiac poetry which is of special interest to students of gender literature. The poems, which take the form of fifteen letters from heroines to their absent lovers and three pairs of letters to a lover with a reply, have frequently been edited and translated into English in both prose and verse. This volume presents a radically new text and translation of the whole collection. The text separates what we regard as the original core of the poem from what we take to be additional accretions to it. The translation is designed to facilitate an understanding of the original as an aid to interpretation. All students of Latin poetry are included in the intended readership.