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The ''Heroides'' (''The Heroines''),〔Usually abbreviated ''Her.'' or ''H.'' in citations of Ovid's works.〕 or ''Epistulae Heroidum'' (''Letters of Heroines''), is a collection of fifteen epistolary poems composed by Ovid in Latin elegiac couplets and presented as though written by a selection of aggrieved heroines of Greek and Roman mythology in address to their heroic lovers who have in some way mistreated, neglected, or abandoned them. A further set of six poems—widely known as the ''Double Heroides'' and numbered 16 to 21 in modern scholarly editions—follows these individual letters and presents three separate exchanges of paired epistles: one each from a heroic lover to his absent beloved and from the heroine in return. Arguably some of Ovid's most influential works (see below), one point that has greatly contributed to the mystique of the ''Heroides''—and to the reverberations they have produced within the writings of later generations—is directly attributable to Ovid himself. In the third book of his ''Ars Amatoria'', Ovid makes the claim that, in writing these fictional epistolary poems in the personae of famous heroines—rather than from a first-person perspective—he created an entirely new literary genre. Recommending parts of his poetic output as suitable reading material to his assumed audience of Roman women, Ovid wrote of his ''Heroides'': "vel tibi composita cantetur Epistola voce: | ignotum hoc aliis ille novavit opus" (''Ars Amatoria'' 3.345–6: "Or let an Epistle be sung out by you in practiced voice: unknown to others, he (HREF="http://www.kotoba.ne.jp/word/11/Scilicet" TITLE="Scilicet">sc.'' Ovid ) originated this sort of composition”). The full extent of Ovid's originality in this matter has been a point of scholarly contention: E. J. Kenney, for instance, notes that "''novavit'' is ambiguous: either 'invented' or 'renewed', cunningly obscuring without explicitly disclaiming O()'s debt to Propertius' (''Arethusa'' (4.3) ) for the original idea."〔Kenney (1996) 1, n. 3.〕 In spite of various interpretations of Propertius 4.3, consensus nevertheless concedes to Ovid the lion's share of the credit in the thorough exploration of what was, in its time, a highly innovative poetic form. ==Dating and authenticity== The exact dating of the ''Heroides'', as with the overall chronology of the Ovidian corpus, remains a matter of debate. As Peter E. Knox notes, "()here is no consensus about the relative chronology of this (early ) phase of O()'s career," a position which has not advanced significantly since that comment was made.〔Knox (1995) 3.〕 Exact dating is hindered not only by a lack of evidence, but by the fact that much of what is known at all comes from Ovid's own poetry. One passage in the second book of Ovid's ''Amores'' (''Am.'') has been adduced especially often in this context: Knox notes that "()his passage ... provides the only external evidence for the date of composition of the ''Heroides'' listed here. The only collection of ''Heroides'' attested by O() therefore antedates at least the second edition of the ''Amores'' (c. 2 BC), and probably the first (c. 16 BC) ..."〔Knox (1995) 6. He also provides (p. 6, n. 9) a cautionary note, with references, on the use of modern terminology such as ''publication'' to refer to "the circumstances of ancient book production and circulation."〕 On this view, the most probable date of ''composition'' for at least the majority of the collection of single ''Heroides'' ranges between c. 25 and 16 BC, if indeed their eventual ''publication'' predated that of the assumed first edition of the ''Amores'' in that latter year.〔Like many other aspects of Ovidian studies, what is known about the publication of multiple editions of the ''Amores'' is derived almost solely from Ovid himself, who opens those early poems with the epigrammatic preface: tres sumus; hoc illi praetulit auctor opus. ut iam nulla tibi nos sit legisse uoluptas, at levior demptis poena duobus erit Are now three; their author preferred his work this way over that. Though even now you may take little pleasure in reading us, With two books swept away your pain will be lighter With Ovid's word as the only viable evidence on the matter, the existence of a second edition of the ''Amores'' is widely regarded as potentially questionable (cf. the arguments of, e.g. Holzberg ()).〕 Regardless of absolute dating, the evidence nonetheless suggests that the single ''Heroides'' represent some of Ovid's earliest poetic efforts. Questions of authenticity, however, have often inhibited the literary appreciation of these poems.〔For a fuller overview of the authenticity debate than can be offered here, see, among others, Lachmann (1876), Palmer (1898), Courtney (1965) and (1998), Anderson (1973), Reeve (1973), Jacobson (1974), Tarrant (1981), Knox (1986), (1995, esp. the introduction), and (2002), Kennedy (2002), and Lingenberg (2003).〕 Joseph Farrell identifies three distinct issues of importance to the collection in this regard: (1) individual interpolations within single poems, (2) the authorship of entire poems by a possible Ovidian impersonator, and (3) the relation of the ''Double Heroides'' to the singles, coupled with the authenticity of that secondary collection.〔Farrell (1998).〕 Discussion of these issues has been a focus, even if tangentially, of many treatments of the ''Heroides'' in recent memory. As an example following these lines, for some time scholars debated over whether this passage from the ''Amores''—corroborating, as it does, only the existence of ''Her.'' 1–2, 4–7, 10–11, and very possibly of 12, 13,〔''Am.'' 2.18.38 reads ''et comes extincto Laodamia viro'' ("and Laodamia, companion to her deceased husband"), which could refer solely to a subject of the poetry of Macer, who is addressed in ''Am.'' 2.18, or could as easily be relating Macer's works to Ovid's own compositions, serving as evidence, therefore, for the authenticity of ''Her.'' 13.〕 and 15—could be cited fairly as evidence for the ''in''authenticity of at least the letters of Briseis (3), Hermione (8), Deianira (9), and Hypermnestra (14), if not also those of Medea (12), Laodamia (13), and Sappho (15).〔Some critics have argued that the passage in ''cruces'' in line 26—together with its partner at line 34 (''det votam Phoebo Lesbis amata lyram'' – "the woman of Lesbos, loved in return, might offer Phoebus the promised lyre")—is in fact an interpolation.〕 Stephen Hinds argues, however, that this list constitutes only a ''poetic'' catalogue, in which there was no need for Ovid to have enumerated every individual epistle.〔Hinds (1993) 30 f., a suggestion cited by scholars since almost as a matter of reflex. Cf. also, on ''Her.'' 12, Knox (1986) and Heinze (1991–93). For a more recent discussion of the broad implications of this passage from the ''Amores'', see Knox (2002) 118–21.〕 This assertion has been widely persuasive, and the tendency amongst scholarly readings of the later 1990s and following has been towards careful and insightful literary explication of individual letters, either proceeding under the assumption of, or with an eye towards proving, Ovidian authorship. Other studies, eschewing direct engagement with this issue in favour of highlighting the more ingenious elements—and thereby demonstrating the high value—of individual poems in the collection, have essentially subsumed the authenticity debate, implicating it through a tacit equation of high literary quality with Ovidian authorship. This trend is visible especially in the most recent monographs on the ''Heroides''.〔Cf. in particular the recent dissertations-turned-published-monographs of Lindheim (2003), Spentzou (2003), and Fulkerson (2005).〕 On the other hand, some scholars have taken a completely different route, ascribing the whole collection to one〔Zwierlein (1999).〕 or two〔Lingenberg (2003) regards the single letters as a coherently structured work by one author, published some years after Ovid's death at latest and believed to be authentic Ovid already by Seneca; the double letters are by a different author, but probably roughly contemporary.〕 Ovidian imitators (the catalogue in ''Am.'' 2.18, as well as ''Ars am.'' 3.345–6 and ''Epistulae ex Ponto'' 4.16.13–14, would then be interpolations introduced to establish the imitations as authentic Ovid). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Heroides」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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