Here is your short summary of the Poem “Hero and Leander” by Christopher Marlowe:
Christopher Marlowe’s epyllion, Hero and Leander was a narrative verse that was completed by George Chapman in the year 1598 but still it remained marvellous in its form. He completed the poem by adding four more cantos. “The Tale of Teras” deviated highly from the rest but was still added. Also some arguments were added to all six cantons which George called as “Sestyads”.
The nomenclature was based on the principle of the Iliad and was named so as it stressed on events in Ilium. Sestos is the birthplace of Hero where this tale has been set in.
Marlowe’s story has found its source in Ovid and the grammarian-poet Musaeus. Ill-famed Hellespont is the responsible for the separation of the lovers. Hero lives in Asia in an ancient town called Sestos and are sworn to life long chastity while Leander lives in Abydus which is a town in Europe who visits the Sestos for the Feast of Adonis. That is where the tragedy begins.
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Marlowe takes the place of Leander’s father after Musaeus sees that Hero’s parents are aggressive. Leander is in love with Hero and courtship period begins. Leander is opposed to the idea that an acolyte of Venus be chaste. Hero is also carried away in Leander’s love but to meet, the two have to be secretive. Hero lights a flaming torch from the top of her tower every night so that Leander can spot her after he swims Hellespont each night to come to her. Winter brings them a different fortune as light gets extinguished by the wind. Leander is left in vain in the angry seas.
The passages are extremely evocative in description and the visit to the Temple of Venus is also shown as one where the gods-in-love are shadowing underneath the glass floor. “Committing heady riots, incests, rapes” is to bring out this image of the holy temple. The “sapphire-visage “Neptune is infatuated by Leander who almost falls a prey to her erotic beauty.
The war imagery of love making has been depicted in the later cantons of the narrative which has fascinating reflections of the ambiguity with which Hero receives her suitor.
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Marwole has proclaimed that “Love is not full of pity, as men say…” as he tries to find the tenderness in love. Leander mates with Hero who consents to the intercourse without being sure of what she is going through. The fact that either sex is instinctive in their sexual desires has been portrayed through these lines depicting erotic love.
There are emotional and physical undercurrents that are present through the escapade. The visually attractive moment is when Hero, remembers the adultery of Mars and Venus and she feels the bed when trapped by Vulcan in an iron net. The Leander grabs her, and she falls to the floor and stands up magnificently composed to full height in naked blushing self and the night drives off in an anger was giving way to some of Hero’s emotional turmoil.