Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen

Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen, a blank-verse tragedy in five acts by F. Grillparzer on the ancient love story of Hero, priestess of Aphrodite, and Leander. Although Ovid and Virgil had treated it, Grillparzer used as his main source F. Passow's edition of the ‘Epyll’ of Hero and Leander by the Grammarian Musaeus (5th c. ad). The story was also known through a folk-song (‘Es waren zwei Königskinder’) and a ballad by Schiller (Hero und Leander), and Grillparzer knew Christopher Marlowe's poem Hero and Leander. He elaborated the story to suit his purpose, introducing supporting characters, of which the priest is the most significant, and reducing the time of action to three days. The project goes back to 1820, but it was not until 26 February 1829 that the play was completed. Its first performance on 5 April 1831 proved a failure, but H. Laube successfully revived it in revised form at the Burgtheater in 1851. It was published in 1839 (title-page gives 1840).

Hero's dedication to priesthood, entailing her renunciation of matrimony, opens the play and is treated with ominous ambiguity as the sight of Leander throws her into confusion during the ritual. The following night Leander returns from Abydos to the shores of Sestos, having swum across the Hellespont, and visits Hero in the priestess's tower. The next day Hero lives for her lover's promise to return at night, but the priest, suspecting a grave sin, exposes to the winds the lamp which is to guide the swimmer through the darkness to the tower; he thus aids the gods in their retribution. Hero dies of a broken heart after Leander's body, washed ashore the following morning, is removed, at the priest's command, for burial.

Grillparzer commented on the title of the play: ‘Der etwas prätiös klingende Titel … sollte im voraus auf die romantische oder vielmehr menschlich allgemeine Bedeutung der antiken Fabel hindeuten.’