Pyramus+and+Thisbe

 __** The Story of Pyramus and Thisbe **__

By: Amanda Reed, Willa Dowe, and Drew McCandless



__Summary:__ According to Ovid, Pyramus and Thisbe were two young Babylonians who were deeply in love. They lived in connected houses (kind of like townhouses), but their parents forbid them to be wed. The only way they talked or seen eachother was through the crack in the wall that seperated them. One day they decided to meet by a white mulberry tree. Thisbe arrived first and was suprised by the sight of a lion who had just finished a kill. She managed to get away, but she dropped her veil, which the lion ripped up. When Pyramus arrived, he saw the veil and assumed that Thisbe had been mauled by some horrible beast. Not able to bear this thought, he stabbed himself with a sword at the foot of the mulberry tree. Thisbe returned to the mulberry bush, excited to tell Pyramus what happened to her and in seeing his inanimate body lie on the floor, she killed herself in despair. The blood from their bodys stained the floor red and the previously white mulberries were now a deep purple. According to another version of the story, Thisbe was pregnant by Pyramus before their marraige and was unable to bear such shame. She killed herself and her beloved followed. This version's source is listed at the bottom of the page.

__References in Art, Music, and Literature:__ > "They were two jewels of purity > Divided by a wall that had been built many years before > He used to listen to her breathes > So many kisses have been blown through the years every day > > "So one night, the elopement > A date in the dark wood of hope > No way to warn him, or to come back > Just the veil, the torn and bloodstained veil, on the ground > > "He stuck his dagger in his breast > The berries turned to red > When she was back and saw him > She saw the blade and met her own death" >  > > http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Pyramus_and_Thisbe >  The original latin text and literal english translation can be found at the link above. > > Schmidt, Joel, comp. __Larousse Greek and Roman Mythology__. Ed. Dr. Seth Bernadete. Trans. Sheilah O'Halloran. Larousse, 1980.   media type="youtube" key="DOpEZM6OEvI" height="344" width="425"
 * 1)  Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is a direct parallel to the story of Pyramus and Thisbe. In Shakespeare's work, Juliet took a potion to fake her death. Romeo, upon seeing her seemingly lifeless body, believed her to be truly dead; in his grief, he stabbed himself. Juliet woke up shortly thereafter, horrified to see Romeo's bloody body. She then proceeded to kill herself. This is similar to Pyramus and Thisbe because both male characters killed themselves when they believed their loves to be dead. Also, once the woman comes back into the picture, she, too, kills herself out of grief and anguish.
 * 2)  Geoffrey Chaucer was among the first to tell the story in English with his //The Legend of Good Women//
 * 3)  A comic recapitulation appears in the play //A Midsummer Night's Dream// (Act V, sc 1), enacted by a group of "mechanicals".
 * 4)  Louisa May Alcott, author of //Little Women//, also wrote a children's version of "Pyramus and Thisbe" in her short story "A Hole in the Wall".
 * 5)  There is a chapter entitled "Pyramus and Thisbe" in the Count of Monte Cristo, alluding to the secret romance between Maximillian Morrel and Valentine de Villefort.
 * 6)  In the song "The Veil (Pyramus et Thisbe)" by Elegacy they say things such as:
 * 1)  This is a painting by Gregorio Pagani entitled //Pyramus and Thisbe.// How original.