ABSTRACT
Placed right after Heroides 6, this epistle forms a natural pair with it: in both poems we find a queen who gave hospitality and help to a voyaging hero and had an amatory relationship with him but subsequently left by her lover, who sailed off to success on his quest. But Ovid rings the changes and demonstrates his versatility by producing here a different tone in his treatment of the same basic situation (see further below on all the irreverent levity). Monotony is also avoided by means of divergence in points of detail (e.g. this time the hero is a moral man, who has not yet departed; there is no other woman involved; and the outcome is dissimilar, as this heroine goes on to commit suicide very soon). You should be able to spot further differences for yourself as you read Heroides 7.
