The Heroides , or Epistulae Heroidum , is a collection of fifteen epistolary poems composed by Ovid in Latin elegiac couplets and presented as though written by a selection of aggrieved heroines of Greek and Roman mythology in address to their heroic lovers who have in some way mistreated, neglected, or abandoned them.
“Let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be fish.”
Casus ubique valet; semper tibi pendeat hamus
Quo minime credas gurgite, piscis erit.
Book III, line 425
Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love)
Source: Heroides
Context: Chance is always powerful. Let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be fish.
“The event proves well the wisdom of her [Phyllis'] course.”
Heroides (The Heroines)
Original: (la) Exitus acta probat.
The end proves the acts (were done), or the result is a test of the actions; Ovid's line 85 full translation:
Variant translations: The ends justify the means. All's well that ends well. NB: the end does not always equal the goal.
II, 85
“We're slow to believe what wounds us.”
Tarde quae credita laedunt credimus.
II, 9-10; translation by A. S. Kline
Heroides (The Heroines)
“The result justifies the deed.”
Exitus acta probat.
Variant translation: The ends justify the means.
II, 85
Heroides (The Heroines)
“Love is a thing full of anxious fears.”
Res est solliciti plena timoris amor.
I, 12
Heroides (The Heroines)
“Now are fields of corn where Troy once stood.”
Iam seges est ubi Troia fuit.
I, 53
Heroides (The Heroines)
