Leander
(
Λέανδρος or
Λείανδρος).
A youth of Abydos, who was in love with Hero , the priestess of Aphrodité in
Sestus, and swam every night across the Hellespont to visit her, and returned before daybreak.
Once during a stormy night he perished in the waves. Next morning his corpse was washed on the
coast of Sestus, whereupon Hero threw herself into the sea. This story was the subject of the
poem of
Musaeus (q.v.), entitled
De Amore
Heroïs et Leandri, and is also mentioned by Ovid (
Her. xviii. 19) and Vergil (
Georg. iii. 258). In modern times the story has been used by Marlowe,
Schiller, Leigh Hunt, and Grillparzer.