Hero

Like many other American sculptors working in the neoclassical style, William Henry Rinehart drew the subject for his companion sculptures of Hero (here) and Leander (86.513) from ancient mythology. As told by the Roman poet Ovid, the star-crossed lovers lived on opposite sides of the Hellespont, the narrow body of water separating modern-day Turkey and Greece. Each night Leander would swim the Hellespont to be with Hero, who guided him with her lamp. But one stormy night her lamp blew out, and Leander lost his way and drowned. Overcome with grief, Hero threw herself into the sea and drowned. Their melancholic story was popular among Victorian audiences of Rinehart's day and often illustrated by artists, particularly after Lord Byron's celebrated 1810 swim of the Hellespont in imitation of the mythic Greek Leander. Rinehart's works show Leander disrobing in preparation for his evening swim, while Hero, her beacon lamp beside her, ardently awaits her lover on the other shore. Waves "lap" at the bases of both sculptures.

86.512