Christopher Marlowe, Hero and Leander

Lisa Hopkins (Sheffield Hallam University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1593

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

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With all too many of Marlowe's works we are frustratingly sure that what has come down to us is not what he actually wrote. With

Hero and Leander

we are even more frustratingly

unsure

of whether that is the case or not. The poem tells the celebrated story of the love between the hero, Leander, and Hero, a priestess of Venus. The two live in different cities, Abydos and Sestos, which are separated from each other by the gulf known as the Hellespont. Leander swims across for a night of passion, but in so doing he attracts the attention of the sea-god Neptune, who makes advances to him which Leander, not really understanding what is going on, rejects. He breaks safely away, reaches Hero, and the two make love—and there the story breaks off. Its original publisher printed at this point the…

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580 words

Citation: Hopkins, Lisa. "Hero and Leander". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 January 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4770, accessed 20 April 2024.]

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