Heroides 1 as a Programmatic Letter

The Heroides is Ovid’s collection of verse letters between classical heroines and their lovers. The set of fifteen single letters and several paired letters begins with Penelope’s letter to her husband Odysseus, who has been gone from Ithaca for twenty years due to the Trojan War. While Odysseus’adventures were chronicled by Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey, Ovid sets out to share Penelope’s perspective on, arguably, the eve of Odysseus’ return. However, Penelope’s letter is not just the first in the collection, it is a programmatic letter for the Heroides because it introduces the theme of the later letters, and it more closely follows epistolary style markers than the other letters. Penelope’s letter occurs in a situation that is more realistic than others in the collection, and so readers are persuaded to accept the later letters, even if the situations seem less plausible. Ovid’s interpretation of Homer’s Penelope also prepares readers for his views of later heroines and demonstrates the important place of imitatio and aemulatio in his writing. Therefore, in acting as a programmatic letter, Penelope’s letter introduces the collection and gives Ovid firm ground to explore with his later “writers.