ABSTRACT

TITLE: Pyramus and Thisbe

AUTHOR: Ovid (a roman poet)
CHARACTERS: Pyramus, Thisbe and their parents
THEME: Romantic love or doomed love
SETTING: Babylon

SUMMARY: 
Pyramus was the son of one family and Thisbe the daughter of the other family. They lived next
door to each other in their parents’ grand houses, but were forbidden to associate with each
other in any way. A wall separated the two families’ houses, but there was a crack in it; Pyramus
and Thisbe would meet and speak to each other in secret, using the crack in the wall to
communicate with each other without their parents finding out. They arranged to meet
somewhere away from their parents’ houses, at the tomb of Ninus, the mythical founder of
Nineveh and the Babylonian Empire. At the site of the tomb a mulberry tree flourished. When
Thisbe showed up on the night of their secret rendezvous, she couldn’t see Pyramus, who
hadn’t arrived yet. But she saw a lioness with blood dripping from its mouth, having devoured
some unfortunate prey. Thisbe grew scared, so she ran away, dropping her scarf behind as she
fled. The lioness took the scarf in its mouth and tore it to pieces. When Pyramus showed up, he
found Thisbe’s scarf torn to bits and covered in blood, and no Thisbe. Assuming the worst, he
took out his sword and stabbed himself, eager to join his beloved – so he thought – in the
afterlife, unable to go on living without her. When Thisbe showed up and saw her lover had
killed himself, thinking her dead, she took the sword from his lifeless hands and stabbed herself.
The blood of the two lovers stained the mulberry tree, turning the white fruit red.

MORAL OF THE STORY: The moral of this story is that true love beats everything else.