Heroides

The  ('Heroines'), or Epistulae Heroidum ('Letters of Heroines'), is a collection of fifteen epistolary poems composed by Ovid in Latin elegiac couplets and presented as though written by a selection of aggrieved heroines of Greek and Roman mythology in address to their heroic lovers who have in some way mistreated, neglected, or abandoned them. A further set of six poems, widely known as the  and numbered 16 to 21 in modern scholarly editions, follows these individual letters and presents three separate exchanges of paired epistles: one each from a heroic lover to his absent beloved and from the heroine in return.

Quotes

 * Grant Showerman, ed. Ovid: Heroides and Amores, LCL 41 (1914); revised by G. P. Goold (1989)


 * Nil mihi rescribas, tu tamen ipse veni!
 * Write nothing back to me—yourself come!
 * I, 2 (tr. Grant Showerman)


 * Res est solliciti plena timoris amor.
 * Love is a thing ever filled with anxious fear.
 * I, 12 (tr. Grant Showerman)


 * Iam seges est ubi Troia fuit, resecandaque falce Luxuriat Phrygio sanguine pinguis humus.
 * Now are fields of corn where Troy once was, and soil made fertile with Phrygian blood waves rich with harvest ready for the sickle.
 * I, 53 (tr. Grant Showerman)


 * Tarde quae credita laedunt credimus.
 * We are tardy in believing, when belief brings hurt.
 * II, 9–10 (tr. Grant Showerman)


 * Exitus acta probat.
 * The event proves well the wisdom of her course.
 * II, 85 (tr. Grant Showerman)
 * Cf. The ends justify the means; All's well that ends well


 * Dicere quae puduit, scribere iussit amor.
 * What modesty forbade me to say, love has commanded me to write.
 * IV, 10 (tr. Grant Showerman)


 * Si fuit errandum, causas habet error honestas.
 * If 'twas my fate to err, my error had honourable cause.
 * VII, 109 (tr. Grant Showerman)


 * Abeunt studia in mores.
 * Tastes change into character.
 * XV, 83 (tr. Grant Showerman)


 * Non veniunt in idem pudor atque amor.
 * Modesty and love are not at one.
 * XV, 121 (tr. Grant Showerman)


 * Est virtus placitis abstinuisse bonis.
 * There is virtue in abstinence from what delights.
 * XVII, 98 (tr. Grant Showerman)
 * Cf. Epictetus: Sustine et abstine.

Classical and Foreign Quotations

 * Variants: W. Francis H. King, ed. Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 4, 12, 127, 149, 334, 504, 695, 732, 1169, 1815, 2527, 2567, 2700


 * Abeunt studia in mores.
 * Pursuits grow into habits.
 * XV, 83


 * Exitus acta probat.
 * The event justifies the deed.
 * II, 85


 * Dicere que puduit, scribere jussit amor.
 * What shame forbade me speak, Love made me write.
 * IV, 10


 * Nulla reparabilis arte Læsa pudicitia est: deperit illa semel.
 * When once a woman’s virtue’s gone, No art the damage can atone: 'Tis ruined once for all.
 * V, 103
 * Chastity


 * Si fuit errandum, causas habet error honestas.
 * If I sinned, the sin has fair excuse.
 * VII, 109
 * Dido to Æneas. If she did go astray, she might plead excuse, seeing that the gods had thrown such a lover in her way.


 * Cœpisti melius quam desinis: ultima primis Cedunt: dissimiles hic vir, et ille puer.
 * You began better than you end: your last attempts must yield the palm to your previous achievements. How little does the man correspond to the promise of the boy!
 * IX, 23
 * reproaching.


 * Si qua voles apte nubere, nube pari.
 * If you wish to marry suitably, marry your equal.
 * IX, 32


 * Arbiter es formæ.
 * You are the (or a) judge of beauty.
 * XVI, 69
 * Mercury to Paris, appointing him to award the prize to the most fair.


 * Jam seges est ubi Troja fuit, resecandaque falce Luxuriat Phrygio sanguine pinguis humus.
 * The scythe now reaps the corn where Ilion stood, And fields that fatten on the Trojans’ blood.
 * I, 53
 * The Site of Troy.


 * Acceptissima semper Munera sunt, auctor quæ pretiosa facit.
 * Those presents which derive their value from the donor are always the most acceptable.
 * XVII, 71
 * Cf. Shakespeare, Hamlet, 3, 1, 98: You gave—with words of so sweet breath composed, As made the things more rich.


 * Est virtus placitis abstinuisse bonis.
 * 'Tis virtue to abstain from things that please.
 * XVII, 98


 * Tarda solet magnis rebus inesse fides.
 * Confidence is slow in reposing itself in undertakings of any magnitude.
 * XVII, 130


 * An nescis longas regibus esse manus?
 * Don’t you know that kings have long arms?
 * XVII, 166
 * The ramifications of the machinery of State are so widely extended as to be able to track an offender on a distant shore.