The Heroides is a collection of verse letters, written in elegiac couplets, supposedly sent by mythological heroines (or heroes) to their lovers, who are absent for various reasons. It is the work of the Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC – AD 17), and it comprises two parts: the first part contains fourteen letters – the so-called ‘single letters’ – written by women, while the second part comprises the correspondence of Paris and Helen (16–17), Leander and Hero (18–19), Acontius and Cydippe (20–1).

The fifth letter of Ovid's Heroides is the letter supposedly sent by the Phrygian nymph Oenone to Paris, the son of king Priam. Here is an outline of the story: Oenone, daughter of the river-god Cebren and skilled in the art of medicine, was Paris’ first love, while he was still a shepherd on Mount Ida, unaware that he was the Prince of Troy. Paris later left her for Helen, whom he received as a gift from Venus for granting her first prize in the beauty contest against Juno and Minerva. During the ensuing Trojan War Paris was wounded by Philoctetes’ arrows. He returned to Oenone and begged her to heal him, but she refused. After Paris died, Oenone killed herself, filled with remorse. Oenone's Ovidian letter is written after Paris’ return to Troy with Helen and before the outbreak of the Trojan War.

Before I discuss this letter, let me first underline three important points about the Heroides:

• 1. The letters of the Heroides have double senders and double receivers: the senders are Ovid and the heroines, and the receivers are the lovers of the heroines and us, the external readers (as ‘super-readers’).

• 2. The general situation of each heroine in the single letters, mutatis mutandis, is similar to that of an elegiac lover: she has been betrayed by a faithless man, who has broken his promises and has abandoned her. The heroine tries to persuade the recipient to act in accordance with her desires, accusing him of cruelty and lamenting her miserable fate. In this way the Heroides are perfectly in line with elegy's original function as a genre of lamentation.