ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Hero and Leander is a poem by Christopher Marlowe that retells the Greek myth of Hero and Leander. After Marlowe’s untimely death it was completed by George Chapman. The minor poet Henry Petowe published an alternative completion to the poem.

Detailed explanation-2: -Chapman’s conclusion to Christopher Marlowe’s unfinished poem Hero and Leander (1598) emphasized the necessity for control and wisdom.

Detailed explanation-3: -The poem ends a few lines after this; Marlowe never finished the story. In his source text, what happens next is that Leander swims to Hero’s tower again on another night, but is drowned by a storm; his body washes up on the shore beneath Hero’s tower, she sees it, and she jumps from the tower to her death.

Detailed explanation-4: -Hero and Leander is conventionally regarded as a fragmented poem, begun by Marlowe and completed by Chapman.

Detailed explanation-5: -Hero, virgin priestess of Aphrodite at Sestos, was seen at a festival by Leander of Abydos; they fell in love, and he swam the Hellespont at night to visit her, guided by a light from her tower. One stormy night the light was extinguished, and Leander was drowned; Hero, seeing his body, drowned herself likewise.