Ovid\u27s Insight into the Minds of Abandoned Women

Mythical heroines, such as Penelope of the Odyssey, often took minor roles in literature, ones in which their characters\u27 complexities were not addressed. Ovid revived the heroines of tradition and gave them voices which expressed realistic feelings and thoughts in his Heriodes. In these fictional letters to absent lovers, Ovid creates realistic characters, each of whom reacts to her abandonment with an insightful feminine voice. By examining the heriones\u27 voice and the ways in which the Heriodes differs from the literary tradition, and by considering the effects of the epistolary genre on the characters\u27 voices, I argue that Ovid managed to create realistic, feminine personas to be the authors of his letters