Hero and Leander by Christopher Marlowe audiobook.

Genre: poetry

In Christopher Marlowe's lush, witty narrative poem Hero and Leander, a familiar classical myth becomes a daring study of desire, persuasion, and the risks lovers take to reach each other. Hero is a celebrated young priestess living in Sestos, pledged to a life of chastity and honored for her beauty and status. Across the narrow but treacherous Hellespont, Leander, a handsome youth of Abydos, sees her at a festival and is struck with an obsession that quickly turns into a campaign to win her heart. Marlowe follows their courtship with sensual detail and gleeful intelligence, blending romance with sharp commentary on vows, reputation, and the gap between public virtue and private longing. As attraction intensifies, geography becomes a real antagonist: water separates them, rules constrain them, and every meeting demands secrecy, courage, and cunning. Rich with classical allusion, comic asides, and soaring imagery, the poem invites listeners into an ancient world where love is both an exquisite pleasure and a perilous test, and where a single choice can set a life on a new and uncertain course.

Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 00

(00:03:40) Chapter 01

(00:19:19) Chapter 02

(00:37:47) Chapter 03

(00:46:46) Chapter 04

(01:04:21) Chapter 05

(01:17:09) Chapter 06

(01:35:10) Chapter 07

(01:54:34) Chapter 08

(02:14:09) Chapter 09

(02:26:19) Chapter 10

(02:37:35) Chapter 11

(02:50:21) Chapter 12

(02:57:20) Chapter 13

(03:09:50) Chapter 14

(03:24:12) Chapter 15

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices