Heroides by Ovid

Author:Ovid
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Poetry, Ancient & Classical, epic, General, Literary Collections, Literary Criticism
Publisher: Penguin UK
Published: 2004-11-25T05:22:18+00:00

NOTES

1. Haemonia (the land of Haemon) was another name for Thessaly. Haemon, the lover of Antigone, was the son of Creon, King of Thebes.

2. Boreas was the god of the north wind.

3. Bacchus (the Greek Dionysus) was often depicted with two horns growing from his brow.

4. Helen was born in Sparta, which was often called Taenarus by the poets. Properly speaking, Taenarus (now Tainaron) is a point in Laconia which is the most southerly extension of the Peloponnese. The area was said to contain a cave which was the entrance to the Underworld.

5. These are all geographical features of the area around Troy. Ilion is the name by which the country was known; Tenedos is an island off the coast; Simois is a river of Troy, as is the Xanthus, also known as the Scamander; and Ida is a range of mountains that lies south and east of the site of Troy, whose principal peak is Mount Ida.

6. This is another reference to Helen, whose mother was Leda and whose brothers were the Dioscuri.

The Greeks were often called Danaans after Danaus, a very early king of Argos. See HYPERMESTRA in Appendix 1: Principal Characters.

7. Hector, foremost of Priam’s many sons, was the greatest of the Trojan warriors.

8. Argolis is the name given to that area around the Gulf of Argolis in the Peloponnese. Its principal city was Argos, and the area included Epidaurus, Midea, Mycenae, Nauplia, Nemea and Tiryns. Because Argolis encompassed much of Greece – though not its entirety – Laodamia here uses the term to include the whole.

9. The Trojans were often known as the sons of Dardanus who was said to be the common ancestor of the people of Troy.

10. The city of Troy was especially sacred to the sea-god, Neptune.

11. The Inachus is the principal river of Argos. In this context the term applies to all things Greek. Inachus was also said to have been the first of the Argive kings.

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