Leander,William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act IV, Scene 1.
he would have lived many a fair year, though Hero
had turned nun, if it had not been for a hot
midsummer night; for, good youth, he went but
forth to wash him in the Hellespont and, being
taken with the cramp, was drowned and the foolish
coroners of that age found it was 'Hero of Sestos.'
But these are all lies: men have died from time to
time and worms have eaten them, but not for love.
***
Leander of Abytos died on a stormy night while trying to swim across the Hellespont (the Dardanelles) to meet Hero, the priestess of Aphrodite in Sestos. Hero drowned herself after her lover's body washed ashore.
