Hero and Leander

Christopher Marlowe · George Chapman

jan. 1927 · Maddox & Gray

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Hero and Leander is a mythological short epic by the famous English writer and dramatist Christopher Marlowe. When Marlowe was killed after being accused of blasphemy, he left the poem unfinished to be later completed by George Chapman. The poem follows the love story between the two Greek mythological characters Hero and Leander which was first narrated in the works of the two ancient poets Musaeus Grammaticus and Ovid. Hero is a priestess of the goddess Venus to whom she has made a vow of chastity, yet she falls in love with Leander, a young man from Abydos on the opposite side of the narrow sea passage known as the Hellespont. Leander, who promises to cross the Hellespont every night to reach his beloved, gets in trouble with Neptune, the god of the seas. When he eventually comes at Hero's door, he has to make use of his guile and physical beauty to seduce his coy beloved. At this point starts Chapman's contribution to accompany the two lovers until Leander drowns in the sea on his way to Hero. Watching her lover's dead body from her high tower, the latter decides to throw herself and die by his side.