MUSAEUS' "HERO AND LEANDER": INTRODUCTION, GREEK TEXT, TRANSLATION, AND COMMENTARY

THE TALE ABOUT LEANDER, the nighttime clandestine lover who crosses the dangerous waters between Sestos and Abydos to see his beloved Hero and drowns in the process, is among the "classics" of European literature. Since the editio Aldina of 1495, Musaeus' poem has been associated above all with tragic romantic love. The English rendition closely follows the Greek original and reproduces some of the stylistic features of the poem, as for example line 2 (ØaXaaaoTtoprav opsvaícov) translated as "transmarine nuptials" or the repetition at 255 (ainoç, e&v spėtqę, а6т0ато7,о