Epistulae

Books

• Penelope Ulixi

  Penelope writes to Ulysses, still absent twenty years after the Trojan War. She begs him to return, torn between hope and despair as suitors overrun their home in Ithaca.

  116 lines
• Phyllis Demophoonti

  Phyllis writes to Demophoon, the son of Theseus, who promised to return from Athens but never came. She reproaches his faithlessness as she contemplates suicide.

  148 lines
• Briseis Achilli

  Briseis writes to Achilles from Agamemnon's tent, begging him to take her back. She insists she was taken unwillingly and protests her love.

  154 lines
• Phaedra Hippolyto

  Phaedra writes to her stepson Hippolytus, confessing her forbidden passion. She pleads her case with a mixture of shame, desire, and desperate self-justification.

  176 lines
• Oenone Paridi

  Oenone, the nymph Paris abandoned for Helen, writes to him from Mount Ida. She reminds him of their love and warns that Helen will bring only destruction.

  150 lines
• Hypsipyle Iasoni

  Hypsipyle writes to Jason, whom she loved on Lemnos before he abandoned her for Medea. She denounces his infidelity and Medea's witchcraft.

  166 lines
• Dido Aeneae

  Dido writes to Aeneas as he prepares to leave Carthage. She begs, reproaches, and threatens — a letter composed in the knowledge that she will not survive his departure.

  198 lines
• Hermione Orestae

  Hermione writes to Orestes from the house of Neoptolemus, who took her by force. She calls on Orestes to reclaim her as his rightful betrothed.

  120 lines
• Deianira Herculi

  Deianira writes to Hercules, having heard of his love for Iole. She sends the robe steeped in the centaur's blood, still believing it a love charm, not a poison.

  168 lines
• Ariadne Theseo

  Ariadne writes to Theseus from the shore of Naxos, where he has abandoned her after she saved him from the Labyrinth. Alone and terrified, she pleads for rescue.

  152 lines
• Canace Macareo

  Canace writes to her brother Macareus, by whom she has conceived a child. Their father Aeolus has ordered the infant's death and sent her a sword. This is her farewell.

  130 lines
• Medea Iasoni

  Medea writes to Jason, who has abandoned her for the Corinthian princess. She reminds him of everything she sacrificed to save his life — betraying her father, killing her brother — and the fury is unmistakable.

  214 lines
• Laodamia Protesilao

  Laodamia writes to Protesilaus at Troy, begging him to be cautious in battle. An oracle has foretold that the first Greek to touch Trojan soil will die — and she is terrified it will be him.

  160 lines
• Hypermestra Lynceo

  Hypermestra writes to her husband Lynceus from prison. She alone among the fifty daughters of Danaus refused to murder her husband on their wedding night, and now faces her father's punishment.

  130 lines
• Sappho Phaoni

  Sappho writes to Phaon, the beautiful ferryman who has abandoned her. She pours out her passion, recalls her former poetic glory, and contemplates the leap from the Leucadian cliff.

  220 lines
• Paris Helenae

  Paris writes to Helen, attempting to seduce her away from Menelaus. He offers his beauty, his wealth, the judgement of Venus — and the promise that she was destined for him.

  378 lines
• Helene Paridi

  Helen replies to Paris, initially protesting her virtue but gradually revealing her attraction. A masterpiece of psychological portraiture — desire disguised as reluctance.

  268 lines
• Leander Heroni

  Leander writes to Hero across the Hellespont, impatient for the storms to subside so he can swim to her. He describes his nightly crossings and his longing for the light in her tower.

  218 lines
• Hero Leandro

  Hero replies to Leander, urging caution against the winter sea while betraying her own desperate desire for his arrival. She describes watching the waves from her tower in anguish.

  210 lines
• Acontius Cydippae

  Acontius writes to Cydippe, whom he tricked into an oath of marriage by rolling an apple inscribed with a vow at her feet in the temple of Diana. He argues that the oath is binding and his love sincere.

  244 lines
• Cydippe Acontio

  Cydippe replies to Acontius, torn between anger at his trick and the divine sickness that strikes her whenever she tries to marry another man. She begins to yield to what seems like fate.

  250 lines