pas de deux

There at the tower of Sestos lived a beautiful young priestess of Aphrodite named Hero. On the other side of the straits in Sestos , lived a handsome young man named Leander , who saw Hero during an Aphrodite ritual and immediately fell in love with her.

Every night , Leander would swim across the straits to be with her and Hero would light a torch on top of the tower to guide her lover to the shore.

During a long and warm summer, the two lovers met every night and Hero,the priestess of Aphrodite who was the goddess of pure love, allows Leander make love to her.

One evening at the end of the summer a storm arises, waves are high and the waters of straits become ice cold.
Leander jumps into the water to meet his lover on the other side of Hellaspoint.

Nobody knows what happened that night, whether the strong winds extinguished the fire of the torch Hero was holding and Leander loses his way, or the waves are to strong for Leander and as a result he drowns that night.

According to the story, the next morning Hero finds her lovers body on the shores of Sestos and being so distraught.




She throws herself from the tower and dies.