In the twenty-one poems of the Heroides" Ovid gave voice to the heroines & heroes of epic & myth. These deeply moving literary epistles reveal the happiness & torment of love as the writers tell of their pain at separation forgiveness of infidelity or anger at betrayal. The faithful Penelope wonders at the suspiciously long absence of Ulysses while Dido bitterly reproaches Aeneas for too eagerly leaving her bed to follow his destiny & Sappho the only historical figure portrayed here describes her passion for the cruelly rejecting Phaon. In the poetic letters between Paris & Helen the lovers seem oblivious to the tragedy prophesied for them while in another exchange the youthful Leander asserts his foolhardy eagerness to risk his life to be with his beloved Hero."