Ovid's Heroides, written in Rome sometime between 25 and 16 BC, was once his most popular work. The title translates as "Heroines." It is a series of poems in the voices of women from Greek and Roman myth - including Phaedra, Medea, Penelope, and Ariadne - addressed to the men they love. Clare Pollard's new translation rediscovers Ovid's Heroines for the 21st century, with a cast of women who are brave, bitchy, sexy, suicidal, horrifying, heartbreaking, and surprisingly modern.
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Dear Ulysses,you're late.Don't worry about answering. Just come home.The enemy of Grecian wives has fallen,but, honestly, Troy wasn't worth it.Penelope to Ulysses
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(@BloodaxeBooks, 1 January 2013, paperback, 110 pages, bought from @AmazonUK)
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I've read Ovid's Heroines when I bought it a few years ago. I remember it fondly. I love Greek Mythology. I've read a lot of books about it including Ovid's Metamorphosis. I even studied a Greek and Roman Mythology course for my degree. So, I'm a fan. I really loved this poetry collection. The poems are written in the voices of various women from Greek and Roman myth and make references to The Trojan War among others. I was familiar with some of the women's stories such as Penelope and Ulysses having read about these events recently in two books by Claire North. I loved how modern and related the different women are. My favourite poems are Penelope to Ulysses, Briseis to Achilles, Phaedra to Hippolytus and Ariadne to Theseus. I'd recommend this.
