American Art Collaborative

Hero, a priestess of the goddess Aphrodite, fell in love with Leander, a brave youth who swam across the Hellespont, a strait that separated them, to meet her each night. One night a tempest arose, Leander’s strength failed, and he drowned. Rinehart depicted Hero waiting faithfully for a lover who will never return. In the wake of the Civil War, many grieving widows and mothers purchased copies of this sculpture and displayed them in their homes.