Hero was a priestess of Aphrodite at Sestos, a town ` a town on the European side of the Hellespont (which is now called Dardanelles), at its narrowest point, which is about three quarters of a mile wide with very swift currents. Leander, her lover, lived in Abydos, on the Asian side directly opposite. He swam across every night in the spring and summer to see her. Leander was guided by a light which Hero kept burning. On an early winter night a storm extinguished the lamp and he drown. Hero tried vainly to see him in the nights storm, and hoped he had not ventured out. When first light rose, she looked from her tower window to the rocks below and saw sea foam stained with his blood. With a cry of misery, she tore off her priestly vestments, leaped into the waves and died beside her lover and be united with him once again.