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HERO AND LEANDER

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 378 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HERO AND LEANDER , two lovers celebrated in antiquity. Hero, the beautiful priestess of See also:Aphrodite at Sestos, was seen by Leander, a youth of See also:Abydos, at the celebration of the festival of Aphrodite and See also:Adonis. He became deeply enamoured of her; but, as her position as priestess and the opposition of her parents rendered their See also:marriage impossible they agreed to carry on a clandestine intercourse. Every See also:night Hero placed a See also:lamp in the See also:top of the See also:tower where she dwelt by the See also:sea, and Leander, guided by it, swam across the dangerous See also:Hellespont. One stormy night the lamp was blown out and Leander perished. On finding his See also:body next See also:morning on the See also:shore, Hero flungherself into the waves. The See also:story is referred to by See also:Virgil (Georg. iii. 258), See also:Statius (Theb. vi. 535) and See also:Ovid (Her. xviii. and xix.). The beautiful little epic of See also:Musaeus has been frequently translated, and is See also:expanded in the Hero and Leander of C. See also:Marlowe and G. See also:Chapman.

It is also the subject of a ballad by See also:

Schiller and a See also:drama by F. See also:Grillparzer. See M. H. See also:Jellinek, See also:Die See also:Sage von Hero and Leander in der Dichtung (189o), and G. Knaack " Hero and Leander " in Festgabe See also:fur See also:Franz Susemihl (1898). A careful collection of materials will be found in F. Koppner, Die Sage von Hero and Leander in der Literatur and Kunst See also:des Allertums (1894).

End of Article: HERO AND LEANDER

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