Chain(ed) Mail: Hypermestra and the Dual Readership of Heroides 14

Abstract

Through a detailed analysis of key passages in Heroides 14, this article seeks to show that Hypermestra's letter, generally considered to be peculiar and rhetorically ineffective, is in fact cleverly designed to elicit distinct responses from its two potential readers. Either the letter will be read by Lynceus, its addressee, who will return to save Hypermestra from her father, Danaus, or (more likely) the letter will be intercepted by Danaus, who will find in it information written to convince him that he has mistakenly imprisoned his daughter. Hypermestra's hitherto unnoticed sophistication in epistolography prefigures her larger success: she survives to found a royal line at Argos.

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