Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

, Pyramus and Thisbe () are a pair of ill-fated lovers from

Babylon Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...

, whose story is best known from

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

's narrative poem ''

Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' (, , ) is a Latin Narrative poetry, narrative poem from 8 Common Era, CE by the Ancient Rome, Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''Masterpiece, magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the world from its Cre ...

''. The tragic myth has been retold by many authors. Pyramus and Thisbe's parents, driven by rivalry, forbade their union, but they communicated through a crack in the wall between their houses. They planned to meet under a

mulberry tree ''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of 19 species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 subordinate ...

, but a series of tragic misunderstandings led to their deaths: Thisbe fled from a lioness, leaving her cloak behind, which Pyramus found and mistook as evidence of her death. Believing Thisbe was killed by the lioness, Pyramus committed suicide, staining the mulberry fruits with his blood. Thisbe, upon finding Pyramus dead, also killed herself. The gods changed the color of the mulberry fruits to honor their forbidden love. Ovid's version is the oldest surviving account, but the story is likely to have originated from earlier myths in

Cilicia Cilicia () is a geographical region in southern Anatolia, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Cilician plain (). The region inclu ...

. The tale has been adapted in various forms, inspiring works such as Shakespeare's ''

Romeo and Juliet ''The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet'', often shortened to ''Romeo and Juliet'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare about the romance between two young Italians from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's ...

'' and ''

A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a Comedy (drama), comedy play written by William Shakespeare in about 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One s ...

'', as well as modern adaptations in literature, opera, and popular culture. The story is depicted in works of art from ancient Roman mosaics to

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

paintings.

Mythology

Ovid

Pyramus and Thisbe are two lovers in the city of

who occupy connected houses. Their respective parents, driven by rivalry, forbid them to wed. Through a crack in one of the walls they whisper their love for each other. They arrange to meet near a tomb under a

and state their feelings for each other. Thisbe arrives first, but upon seeing a lioness with a bloody mouth from a recent kill, she flees, leaving behind her cloak. When Pyramus arrives, he is horrified at the sight of Thisbe's cloak: the lioness had torn it and left traces of blood behind, as well as its tracks. Assuming that a wild beast had killed her, Pyramus kills himself, falling on his sword, a typical Babylonian way to commit suicide, and in turn splashing blood on the white mulberry leaves. Pyramus' blood stains the white mulberry fruits, turning them dark. Thisbe returns, eager to tell Pyramus what had happened to her, but she finds Pyramus' dead body under the shade of the mulberry tree. Thisbe, after praying to their parents and the gods to have them buried together and a brief period of mourning, stabs herself with the same sword. In the end, the gods listen to Thisbe's lament, and forever change the color of the mulberry fruits into the stained color to honor forbidden love. Her wish to be buried together with Pyramus is also granted; the lovers' ashes are preserved in one urn. Pyramus and Thisbe are models of love that is faithful to the very end.

Origins and other versions

Ovid's is the oldest surviving version of the story, published in 8 AD, but he adapted an existing aetiological myth. While in Ovid's telling Pyramus and Thisbe lived in

, and

Ctesias Ctesias ( ; ; ), also known as Ctesias of Cnidus, was a Greek physician and historian from the town of Cnidus in Caria, then part of the Achaemenid Empire. Historical events Ctesias, who lived in the fifth century BC, was physician to the Acha ...

had placed the tomb of his imagined king

Ninus Ninus (), according to Greek historians writing in the Hellenistic period and later, was the founder of Nineveh (also called Νίνου πόλις "city of Ninus" in Greek), ancient capital of Assyria. The figure or figures with which he correspon ...

near that city, the myth probably originated in

(part of Ninus'

Babylonia Babylonia (; , ) was an Ancient history, ancient Akkadian language, Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as a ...

n empire) as Pyramos is the historical Greek name of the local

Ceyhan River The Ceyhan River (historically Pyramos or Pyramus (), Leucosyrus () or Jihun) is a river in Anatolia in the south of Turkey. Course of the river The Ceyhan River (Pyramus) has its source (known as ''Söğütlü Dere'') at a location called '' ...

. The metamorphosis in the primary story involves Pyramus changing into this river and Thisbe into a nearby spring. A 2nd-century mosaic unearthed near Nea Paphos on

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

depicts this older version of the myth. This alternative version also survives in the '' progymnasmata'', a work by Nicolaus Sophista, a Greek sophist and rhetor who lived during the fifth century AD. Antakya Archaeological Museum Mosaics in Portico of the Rivers Pyramos and Thisbe in 2019 01

Antakya Archaeological Museum Mosaics in Portico of the Rivers Pyramos and Thisbe in 2019 01

Adaptations

The story of ''Pyramus and Thisbe'' appears in

Giovanni Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio ( , ; ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian people, Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanism, Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so ...

's '' On Famous Women'' as biography number twelve (sometimes thirteen) and in his '' Decameron'', in the fifth story on the seventh day, where a desperate housewife falls in love with her neighbor, and communicates with him through a crack in the wall, attracting his attention by dropping pieces of stone and straw through the crack. In the 1380s,

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

, in his ''

The Legend of Good Women ''The Legend of Good Women'' is a poem in the form of a dream vision by Geoffrey Chaucer during the fourteenth century. The poem is the third longest of Chaucer's works, after ''The Canterbury Tales'' and ''Troilus and Criseyde'', and is possib ...

'', and

John Gower John Gower (; c. 1330 – October 1408) was an English poet, a contemporary of William Langland and the Pearl Poet, and a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer. He is remembered primarily for three major works—the ''Mirour de l'Omme'', ''Vox ...

, in his ''

Confessio Amantis ''Confessio Amantis'' ("The Lover's Confession") is a 33,000-line Middle English poem by John Gower, which uses the confession made by an ageing lover to the chaplain of Venus as a frame story for a collection of shorter narrative poems. Accor ...

'', were the first to tell the story in English. Gower altered the story somewhat into a

cautionary tale A cautionary tale or moral tale is a tale told in folklore to warn its listener of a Risk, danger. There are three essential parts to a cautionary tale, though they can be introduced in a large variety of ways. First, a taboo or prohibition is ...

. John Metham's '' Amoryus and Cleopes'' (1449) is another early English adaptation. The tragedy of ''

'' ultimately sprang from Ovid's story. Here the star-crossed lovers cannot be together because Juliet has been engaged by her parents to another man and the two families hold an ancient grudge. As in Pyramus and Thisbe, the mistaken belief in one lover's death leads to consecutive suicides. The earliest version of ''Romeo and Juliet'' was published in 1476 by Masuccio Salernitano, while it mostly obtained its present form when written down in 1524 by Luigi da Porto. Salernitano and Da Porto both are thought to have been inspired by Ovid and Boccaccio's writing.

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's most famous 1590s adaptation is a dramatization of Arthur Brooke's 1562 poem '' The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet'', itself a translation of a French translation of Da Porto's novella. In Shakespeare's ''

'' (Act V, sc 1), a comedy written in the 1590s, a group of " mechanicals" enact the story of "Pyramus and Thisbe". Their production is crude and, for the most part, badly done until the final monologues of Nick Bottom, as Pyramus and Francis Flute, as Thisbe. The theme of forbidden love is also present in the main plot of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (albeit in a less tragic and dark representation) in that a girl, Hermia, is not able to marry the man she loves,

Lysander Lysander (; ; 454 BC – 395 BC) was a Spartan military and political leader. He destroyed the Athenian fleet at the Battle of Aegospotami in 405 BC, forcing Athens to capitulate and bringing the Peloponnesian War to an end. He then played ...

, because her father Egeus despises him and wishes for her to marry

Demetrius Demetrius is the Latinization of names, Latinized form of the Ancient Greek male name, male Greek given names, given name ''Dēmḗtrios'' (), meaning "devoted to goddess Demeter". Alternate forms include Demetrios, Dimitrios, Dimitris, Dmytro, ...

, and meanwhile Hermia and Lysander are confident that Helena is in love with Demetrius.

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

performed a humorous performance of "Pyramus and Thisbe" on the 1964 television special '' Around the Beatles''. Primarily based around William Shakespeare's adaptation, the performance featured

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...

as Pyramus,

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...

as his lover Thisbe,

George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Culture ...

as Moonshine, and

Ringo Starr Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the group, us ...

as Lion, with Trevor Peacock in the role of Quince. Spanish poet Luis de Góngora wrote a ''Fábula de Píramo y Tisbe'' in 1618, while French poet Théophile de Viau wrote ''Les amours tragiques de Pyrame et Thisbée'', a tragedy in five acts, in 1621. In 1718 Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello wrote his only opera, ''La Tisbe'', for Württemberg court. François Francoeur and François Rebel composed ''Pirame et Thisbé'', a lyric tragedy in five acts and a prologue, with

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

by Jean-Louis-Ignace de La Serre; it was played at the Académie royale de musique, on October 17, 1726. The story was adapted by John Frederick Lampe as a "Mock Opera" in 1745, containing a singing "Wall" which was described as "the most musical partition that was ever heard." In 1768 in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Johann Adolph Hasse Johann Adolph Hasse (baptised 25 March 1699 – 16 December 1783) was an 18th-century German composer, singer and teacher of music. Immensely popular in his time, Hasse was best known for his prolific operatic output, though he also composed a co ...

composed a serious opera on the tale, titled '' Piramo e Tisbe''. Edmond Rostand adapted the tale, making the fathers of the lovers conspire to bring their children together by pretending to forbid their love, in ''Les Romanesques'', whose 1960 musical adaptation, ''

The Fantasticks ''The Fantasticks'' is a 1960 musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and book and lyrics by Tom Jones. It tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the 1894 play ''The Romancers'' (''Les Romanesques'') by Edmond Rostand, concerning two ne ...

,'' became the world's longest-running musical. Pyramus and Thisbe were featured in ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...

'' 2012 episode " The Daughter Also Rises". Nick and Lisa's misunderstood love was compared to Thisbe and Pyramus' forbidden love. Much like the crack in the wall, Lisa and Nick met through a crack between two booths in an Italian restaurant. Lisa and Nick are portrayed as the two characters during a later portion of the episode. They go to finish off their story and head for the tree under which Pyramus and Thisbe's fate presented itself. Bolu Babalola adapted the story of Pyramus and Thisbe in her 2020 anthology ''Love in Color: Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold.'' In this version Pyramus and Thisbe are college students living next door to each other in an old college dorm with a crack in the wall. Unlike in the original myth, their story ends with them happily together.

In art

File:Pyramus and Thisbe Pompeii.jpg, Painting in Pompeii File:Paphos - Pyrame et Thisbé.jpg, Roman mosaic at Paphos, Cyprus File:Piramos dan Thisbe.jpg, Painting attributed to Jasper van der Laanen (1585–1634) File:Pyramus und Thisbe (Unterlindenmuseum Colmar) jm01289.jpg, 16th century, Unterlinden Museum Colmar File:Nicolaus Knüpfer - Pyrame et Thisbé.jpg, Nicolaus Knüpfer, early 17th century File:Nicolas Poussin - Landscape during a Thunderstorm with Pyramus and thisbe - Google Art Project.jpg, Nicholas Poussin, 1651 File:Andreas Nesselthaler - Pyramus and Thisbe, 1795.jpg, Andreas Nesselthaler, 1795 File:Pierre Gautherot - Pyramus and Thisbe, 1799.jpg , Pierre Gautherot, 1799

Citations

General references

Primary sources

* Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'' iv.55–166

Secondary sources

* Bulfinch, Thomas
''The Age of Fable; Or, Stories of Gods and Heroes''
(2nd ed.), Sanborn, Carter, and Bazin, 1856

External links

Carlos Parada, Greek Mythology link
''pXt''
A

visual novel A visual novel (VN) is a form of digital interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustratio ...

adaptation of the story from ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''
Queen LeerWhy, Thisbe?
(Song and music video)
The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Pyramys and Thisbe)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pyramus And Thisbe Ancient Cilicia Characters in Greek mythology Mythological lovers Mythological duos Metamorphoses characters Metamorphoses into bodies of water in Greek mythology Babylon in fiction Romeo and Juliet Suicides in Greek mythology A Midsummer Night's Dream