Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid)
Posts in The Copybook credited to ‘Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid)’
In The Copybook
Posts in The Copybook credited to ‘Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid)’
In The Copybook
Trapped in Crete with his son Icarus, the craftsman and inventor Daedalus realises a bold and desperate plan to get away.
In a paroxysm of envy, the great craftsman Daedalus murdered his nephew, who seemed likely surpass him in skill, and the sentence of Athens’s highest court was death. Daedalus managed to flee to Crete, but King Minos made life as hateful there as in any prison. So Daedalus fashioned wings for himself and his son Icarus, and prepared to fly to freedom.
Leander recalls that first night when he dared the perilous waters of the Hellespont, and swam to meet his lover Hero.
According to legend, one stormy night the wind extinguished the candle that Hero lit to guide her lover Leander as he swam to her across the Dardanelles Strait, and he was lost. Roman poet Ovid imagined the letter that Leander might have sent by ship to his darling, while he waited impatiently for calmer waters.