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Hero and Leander

   Also found in: Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.01 sec.

Hero and Leander

Lovers celebrated in Greek legend. Hero, a virgin priestess of Aphrodite, was seen by Leander of Abydos during a festival, and the two fell in love. He swam the Hellespont nightly to be with her, guided by a light from her tower. One stormy night the lamp was extinguished, and Leander drowned. When Hero saw his body on the shore, she threw herself from the tower into the sea. The story was told by Ovid and was treated by Christopher Marlowe in his play Hero and Leander and by Lord Byron in The Bride of Abydos.


Hero and Leander
latter drowns, former kills herself in grief. [Gk. Lit.: Hero and Leander; Br. Lit.: Hero and Leander]

Hero and Leander
love affair on the Hellespont tragically ends with latter’s drowning. [Gk. Lit.: Hero and Leander: Br. Lit.: Hero and Leander]


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And it is the same with all the great paintings in this show - Stanley Spencer's old couple still so fixed upon each other they move about the dancehall in ungainly grapple; Marc Chagall's flying couple, airborne with elation; William Turner's spectral Hero and Leander, one waving from the misty shore, the other drowning in a fog of paint, the whole scene as evanescent as a dream one struggles to re-enter in the moment of waking from sleep.
The huge painting by Turner, depicting the tragic parting of lovers Hero and Leander, shows that while he could master the landscape and the elements, he was almost embarrassingly bad at people.
In the same way Hero and Leander becomes an artistic stimulus for Venus and Adonis, Edward II for Richard II, The Jew of Malta for The Merchant of Venice, the two parts of Tamburlaine for Henry V, Dido, Queen of Carthage for Antony and Cleopatra, and Doctor Faustus (in different ways) for Macbeth and The Tempest.
 
 
 
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