The Last Watch of Hero by Frederic Leighton
Hero Is A Woman is the opening vignette in a in a new, delightful book of inspirational mini-biographies celebrating the heroic feats of courageous women, Heroic Vignettes by Tami Richards. If you would like the chance to win an autographed copy, just enter your name and email on our Facebook page in the tab Enter To Win.
“So the sun set and the dusk came. The first star shone; and as the gradual dark deepened, the torch glowed brighter, a signal through the night. About her, asleep, were the sparrows and doves, the birds of Aphrodite which it was Hero’s duty to feed. At the foot of the rocks the ocean boomed solemn and forbidding.
…Hero watched the night through, but Leander did not come. Then she consoled herself with the belief that he had not attempted the dangerous passage in a night of such a storm. The sea was still now and the tempest gone by. Another night and he would come. So she went about her duties and fed the sparrows and the doves of Aphrodite, and descended the rocky cliffs to the sea. But there, even as she dreamed of her love, the waves washed at her feet the body of Leander. Overcome by grief, Hero threw herself into the waves; and in the sea which had separated them the lovers were joined in death.”
Women's Home Companions Vol.40, Crowell-Collier, 1913
