Illinois Classical Studies, Vol. 46, Nos. 1–2, Spring/Fall 2021 103 © 2022 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois Hero Meets Penelope, Leander Meets Odysseus: Te Intratextual Dialogue between Ov. Her. 1 and Her. 18–19 ANDREAS N. MICHALOPOULOS In this paper, I investigate the relationship between Penelope’s letter to Od- ysseus (Her. 1) and the letters of Leander and Hero (Her. 18–19), especially Hero’s letter to Leander (Her. 19). Te peculiarity of this comparative ap- proach lies mainly in the fact that whereas Penelope and Odysseus were one of the most famous couples in ancient literature and the protagonists of a great epic, the Odyssey, Leander and Hero were considerably less known in Rome during Ovid’s time. To prove the close relationship between the letters of Penelope, Leander, and Hero, I present their numerous similari- ties, and then I suggest the reasons why Ovid took pains to compose the letters of Leander and Hero in a way so closely reminiscent of Penelope’s letter to Odysseus. Te close intratextual relationship of several letters in Ovid’s single Heroides has been well researched. 1 Te constant dialogue of the single letters with one another invests the collection with coherence and homogeneity, and at times perhaps with a sense of repetitiveness, of which Ovid has been occasionally ac- cused. On the other hand, to the best of my knowledge, the relationship of the single letters to the double letters has not been amply studied. 2 In this paper, I set out to investigate the relationship between Penelope’s letter to Odysseus (Her. 1) and the letters of Leander and Hero (Her. 18–19), especially Hero’s letter to Leander (Her. 19). Te peculiarity of this comparative approach lies mainly in the fact that, whereas Penelope and Odysseus were one of the most famous couples in ancient literature and the protagonists of a great epic, the Odyssey, Leander and Hero were considerably less known in Rome during Ovid’s time. 1. See, e.g., Lindheim (2003); Spentzou (2003); Fulkerson (2005). All Odyssey passages are cited from the edition of Murray (1919). All Heroides passages are cited from the edition of Showerman (1914). All Heroides translations are by Murgatroyd, Reeves, and Parker (2017). 2. On the close relationship between Oenone’s letter to Paris (Her. 5) and the Paris-Helen cor- respondence (Her. 16–17), see Michalopoulos (2006) 14–16. Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/ics/article-pdf/46/1-2/103/1506980/103michalopoulos.pdf by guest on 29 March 2022