Ovid: Epistulae Heroidum (I: Penelope to Ulysses)

Carmen 1

I. to the text in general:

This kind of fictional epistle is a new form of art i.e. sliloquy. There were before some similar examples, to be found in Propertius' Poem which displays a letter of Arethusa to her husband Lycotas, but it is supposed to have been written by a real person to a real person (from Aelia Galla to Postumus). As Prof. Palmer says, Propertius "did not grasp, or at any rate did not work out the idea that such an epistolary form could be used in general for the delineation of character and the expression of emotion" (Arthur Palmer in his Introdoction to Heroides, Hildesheim: Olms, 167, xii). It was Ovid who expanded this genre.

Main Manuscript: Codex Parisnus 8242 (P) of the 11th. century (Puteaneus).

Medieval translation into Greek!: by Maximus Planudes (13th. century), along this work he translated also: Cicero's Somnium Scipionis and its commentary by Macrobius, Caesar's Gallic War, Ovid's Metamorphoses, St. Augustin's De Trinitate, Boethius' De consolatione Philosophae,

Influence: the tradition of 'female complaint', the Spanish novela sentimantal of the 15th. century, and the epistolary novel of the 18th. century.


II. notes: (from ed. Peter E. Knox: Ovid Heroides, Select Epistles, Cambridge University Press, 1995)

Homer's Odysseus was also read as a love story. Like Ovid made it clear himself in his defence of his poetry to Augustus, where he wrote: "aut quid Odyssea est nisi femina propter amorem, dum uir abest, multis una petita procis" (Trist. 2.375-6).


to the letter: according to the narration in the poem we can judge that the letter is meant to be written after the fall of Troy and the return of the Greeks, and after Penelope's interview with Telemachus, which takes place the day before the suitors are killed. Kennedy suggests that the intended carrier of the letter would be non other than Ulysses himself.


(line: 7-10) Penelope's complaint that she must sleep alone and pass the night in weaving mirrors Cynthia's complaint in Propertius' elegy 1.3.41 "nam modo purpureo fallebam stamine somnum

7-8 in Homer's Odysseus Penolope complains the same to the disguised Odysseus

nomine in Hectoreo: at the mention of Hector's name

17 Menoetiaden: Patroclus, son of Menoetius

33 Sugeua tellus: the land of Troy, called after the promontory Sigeum, the burial place of Achilles and Patroclus (Virg. Aen. 7.294)

39-46 Diomedes and Ulysses captured the Trojan spy Dolon and were informed by him of the location of Rhesus' camp.

vertere puppim: landing a ship stern first

and some more explanatory notes added by me:

1) Pergama: the citadel of Troy, poet. for Troy: Pergama
2) Simois: a river near Troy, flows into the Scamander
3) Aeacides: derived from Aeacus, given to various of his descendants, here must be Achilles, his grandson

Text in full (fairly long) according to the Brepol-edition

Hanc tua Penelope lento tibi mittit, Ulixe;
Nil mihi rescribas, at tamen ipse veni!
Troia iacet certe Danais invisa puellis:
Vix Priamus tanti tota que Troia fuit.
O utinam tum, cum Lacedaemona classe petebat,
Obrutus insanis esset adulter aquis!
Non ego deserto iacuissem frigida lecto,
Non quererer tardos ire relicta dies,
Nec mihi quaerenti spatiosam fallere noctem
Lassasset viduas pendula tela manus.

Quando ego non timui graviora pericula veris?

Res est solliciti plena timoris amor.

In te fingebam violentos Troas ituros,
Nomine in Hectoreo pallida semper eram;
Sive quis Antilochum narrabat ab Hectore victum,
Antilochus nostri causa timoris erat;
Sive Menoetiaden falsis cecidisse sub armis,
Flebam successu posse carere dolos;
Sanguine Tlepolemus Lyciam te pefecerat hastam:
Tlepolemi leto cura novata me ast;
Denique, quisquis erat castris iugulatus Achivis,
Frigidius glacie pectus amantis erat.

Sed bene consuluit casto deus aequus amori:
Versast in cineres sospite Troia viro.

Argolici rediere duces: altaria fumant;
Ponitur ad patrios barbara praeda deos;
Grata ferunt nymphae pro salvis dona maritis,
Illi victa suis Troica fata canunt;
Mirantur iusti que senes trepidae que puellae,
Narrantis coniunx pendet ab ore viri,
Atque aliquis posita monstrat fera proelia mensa
Pingit et exiguo Pergama tota mero:
'Hac ibat Simois, haec est Sigeia tellus,
Hic steterat Priami regia celsa senis;
Illic Aeacides, illic tendebat Ulixes,
Hic lacer admissos terruit Hector equos'.

Omnia namque tuo senior te quaerere misso
Rettulerat nato Nestor, at ille mihi.
Rettulit et ferro Rhesum que Dolona que caesos,
Ut que sit hic somno proditus, ille dolo.

Ausus es, o nimium nimium que oblite tuorum,
Thracia nocturno tangere castra dolo
Tot que simul mactare viros, adiutus ab uno!
At bene cautus eras et memor ante mei!
Usque metu micuere sinus, dum victor amicum
Dictus es Ismariis isse per agmen equis.

Sed mihi quid prodest vestris disiecta lacertis
Ilios et, murus quod fuit, esse solum,
Si maneo, qualis Troia durante manebam,
Vir que mihi dempto fine carendus abest?

Diruta sunt aliis, uni mihi Pergama restant,
Incola captivo quae bove victor arat.

Iam seges est, ubi Troia fuit, resecanda que falce
Luxuriat Phrygio sanguine pinguis humus,
Semisepulta virum curvis feriuntur aratris
Ossa, ruinosas occulit herba domos:
Victor abes, nec scire mihi, quae causa morandi,
Aut in quo lateas ferreus orbe, licet!
Quisquis ad haec vertit peregrinam litora puppim,
Ille mihi de te multa rogatus abit,
Quam que tibi reddat, si te modo viderit usquam,
Traditur huic digitis charta notata meis.

Nos Pylon, antiqui Neleia Nestoris arva,
Misimus: incertast fama remissa Pylo;
Misimus et Sparten: Sparte quoque nescia veri.

Quas habitas terras aut ubi lentus abes?
Utilius starent etiamnunc moenia Phoebi:
(Irascor votis heu! levis ipsa meis)
Scirem, ubi pugnares, et tantum bella timerem,
Et mea cum multis iuncta querela foret.

Quid timeam, ignoro; timeo tamen omnia demens,
Et patet in curas area lata meas:
Quaecumque aequor habet, quaecumque pericula tellus,
Tam longae causas suspicor esse morae.

Haec ego dum stulte metuo, quae vestra libidost,
Esse peregrino captus amore potes;
Forsitan et narres, quam sit tibi rustica coniunx,
Quae tantum lanas non sinat esse rudes.

Fallar, et hoc crimen tenues vanescat in auras,
Neve, revertendi liber, abesse velis!
Me pater Icarius viduo discedere lecto
Cogit et inmensas increpat usque moras.

Increpet usque licet! tua sum, tua dicar oportet:
Penelope coniunx semper Ulixis ero.
Ille tamen pietate mea precibus que pudicis
Frangitur et vires temperat ipse suas:
Dulichii Samii que et, quos tulit alta Zacynthos,
Turba ruunt in me luxuriosa proci
In que tua regnant nullis prohibentibus aula;
Viscera nostra, tuae dilacerantur opes.
Quid tibi Pisandrum Polybum que Medonta que dirum
Eurymachi que avidas Antinoi que manus
Atque alios referam, quos omnis turpiter absens
Ipse tuo partis sanguine rebus alis?

Irus egens pecoris que Melanthius actor edendi
Ultimus accedunt in tua damna pudor.

Hinc faciunt custos que boum longaeva que nutrix,
Tertius inmundae cura fidelis harae!
Tres sumus inbelles numero, sine viribus uxor
Laertes que senex Telemachus que puer.

Telemacho veniet, vivat modo, fortior aetas:
nunc erat auxiliis illa tuenda patris;
Ille per insidias paenest mihi nuper ademptus,
Dum parat invitis omnibus ire Pylon;
Di, precor, hoc iubeant, ut euntibus ordine fatis
Ille meos oculos conprimat, ille tuos.

Sed neque Laertes, ut qui sit inutilis armis,
Hostibus in mediis regna tenere potest,
Nec mihi sunt vires inimicos pellere tectis:
Tu citius venias, portus et ara tuis!
Est tibi sit que, precor, natus, qui mollibus annis
In patrias artes erudiendus erat;
Respice Laerten; ut iam sua lumina condas,
Extremum fati sustinet ille diem;
Certe ego, quae fueram te discedente puella,
Protinus ut venias, facta videbor anus.