Male voices in Ovid’s Heroides*

Abstract

Ovid’s Heroides, both the single and double letters, have been intensively explored in terms of the role and character of the female voice throughout the last few decades. The single letters, in particular, supposedly written by well-known legendary heroines abandoned by, or separated from, their “heroic” husbands or lovers, have been extensively treated as regards Ovid’s, i.e. a male poet’s, ability to successfully assume the female voice and write from the perspective of women, a challenging feat in all respects. On this point Ovidian critics have not reached a unanimous verdict. What about the male voice, though? Is it fully lost under the veil of feminine writing? This paper seeks to bring the male voice to the forefront by examining certain passages from the single Heroides, in which the male voice is heard, either in indirect speech or through direct quoting of the words of the male lovers. It also attempts to trace each female letter-writer’s motivation for quoting these words, the criteria governing the choice of these quotations, and their purpose within each letter.