Hero is a stunningly beautiful young woman who serves as a priestess in the city of Sestos, situated on the European coast of the Hellespont. Outfitted in fantastical garments, including silver seashell boots and a blue skirt intentionally stained with the blood of rejected suitors, she officially dedicates her life to religious chastity. When she meets a handsome stranger from across the water, she faces a profound internal struggle between her sacred vows and her awakening physical desires. She attempts to maintain the appearance of a reluctant maiden while actively encouraging her new suitor.

Leander is a strikingly handsome youth from the city of Abydos, located directly across the Hellespont from Sestos. Possessing an idealized, androgynous beauty that draws the eyes of both men and gods, he is also a highly educated scholar and skilled rhetorician. Despite his eloquence and his ability to construct brilliant logical arguments against the concept of virginity, he remains entirely naive regarding the practical, physical realities of courtship and intimacy.

The narrator functions as an active, highly opinionated presence who guides the reader through the story of the young lovers. He presents himself as an older, worldly-wise man who understands the realities of courtship, frequently halting the narrative to offer cynical opinions about female behavior and the suddenness of romantic attraction. He provides a sharp, detached contrast to the earnest, passionate idealism of the protagonists.

Neptune is the powerful mythological god of the sea who rules the waters separating Sestos and Abydos. Neptune mistakenly believes a mortal swimmer is the beautiful cupbearer Ganimed. He pulls the youth underwater and quickly develops an intense, erotic attraction to him. His behavior shifts rapidly between violent frustration when his advances are rejected and gentle remorse when he accidentally injures himself in a fit of temper.

Cupid is the mythological god of love whose direct intervention initiates the central romance of the narrative. He acts as an external, uncontrollable force of emotion that humans cannot resist, causing a chaste priestess to fall instantly for her suitor. He later attempts to secure a blessing for the couple from the hostile arbiters of fate.

Mercury is the messenger of the gods and the mythological patron of learning. He features in a lengthy side-story designed to explain the eternal poverty of scholars, using his cunning and persistence to court a reluctant mortal woman. His reckless decision to steal divine nectar to satisfy her ambitions incurs the wrath of the king of the gods.

The country maid is a mortal woman who catches the eye of the messenger god. Flattered by divine attention, she employs strategic delaying tactics to neither accept nor definitively reject his advances. She possesses a natural ambition to achieve immortality and makes a dangerous request for divine nectar that causes massive political chaos among the gods.

Venus is the mythological goddess of love and the deity to whom religious devotion is sworn in Sestos. Though she does not appear directly in the physical action of the story, her presence dominates the thematic conflict as the embodiment of sensual, lusty passion. Her paradoxical nature, demanding both religious chastity from her designated nuns and physical consummation from her true followers, drives the core debate between the two main lovers.

The Destinies, also known as the Fates, are powerful mythological figures who control the ultimate outcomes of both mortals and gods. Harboring a deep-seated hatred for the god of love, they completely refuse to grant any favor or blessing to the young couple, casting a permanent, ominous shadow over the developing romance.

Leander's father is an older resident of Abydos who quickly notices the profound, distracting changes in his son's behavior following a festival. He recognizes the classic symptoms of intense romantic infatuation and attempts to reason with the youth, though his practical advice falls on deaf ears.

Adonis is a legendarily handsome but deeply reluctant young hunter who strongly prefers the outdoors to any romantic entanglements. Though he primarily exists as a mythological figure embroidered on garments and celebrated during an annual local festival, his story of rejecting divine advances heavily mirrors the thematic tensions between chastity and desire that dominate the main narrative.

Jove is the quick-tempered king of the mythological gods who rules over the divine pantheon. When he discovers that his sacred nectar has been pilfered to impress a mortal woman, he furiously casts the offending messenger god out of heaven, temporarily losing his own throne in the ensuing political retaliation orchestrated by the Fates.