View source for Pyramus and Thisbe

{{Short description|Pair of ill-fated lovers from Greek mythology}}
{{about||the "mock opera" by John Frederick Lampe|Pyramus and Thisbe (opera)}}
{{For|other uses of "Pyramus" and "Thisbe"|Pyramus (disambiguation)|Thisbe (disambiguation)}}
[[Image:Thisbe - John William Waterhouse.jpg|right|thumb|''Thisbe'', by [[John William Waterhouse]], 1909.]]

In [[Greek mythology]], '''Pyramus and Thisbe''' ({{langx|grc|Πύραμος καὶ Θίσβη|Púramos kaì Thísbē}}) are a pair of ill-fated lovers from [[Babylon]], whose story is best known from [[Ovid]]'s narrative poem ''[[Metamorphoses]]''. 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]], 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 died by 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]]. The tale has been adapted in various forms, inspiring works such as Shakespeare's ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' and ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'', as well as modern adaptations in literature, opera, and popular culture. The story is depicted in works of art from ancient [[Roman mosaic]]s to [[Renaissance]] paintings.

== Mythology ==
=== Ovid ===
Pyramus and Thisbe are two lovers in the city of [[Babylon]] 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 [[mulberry tree]] 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 [[Babylon]], and [[Ctesias]] had placed the tomb of his imagined king [[Ninus]] near that city, the myth probably originated in [[Cilicia]] (part of Ninus' [[Babylonia]]n empire) as Pyramos is the historical Greek name of the local [[Ceyhan River]]. 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]] depicts this older version of the myth.<ref>{{cite book |last1= Miller|first1= John F.|last2= Newlands|first2= Carole E.|date= 2014|title= A Handbook to the Reception of Ovid|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=7fijBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA38|publisher= John Wiley & Sons|pages= 38–39|isbn= 978-1118876121}}</ref> 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.<ref>[[Nicolaus Sophista]], ''[[Progymnasmata]]'' 2.9</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Μυθογραφοι. Scriptores poeticæ historiæ Græci. Edidit A. W. Gr | first1 = Anton | last1 = Westermann | date = 1843 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=phldAAAAcAAJ | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=phldAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA384 384]}}</ref>

Ovid's rendition of the tale seems to have been inspired by an earlier genre of Greek tragic love stories in which a woman is killed accidentally or indirectly by a man, and following that he dies or commits suicide in grief; such examples include [[Anthippe and Cichyrus]] and [[Cyanippus (son of Pharax)|Cyanippus]] and [[Leucone]].<ref>{{cite book | title = Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, and Civic Life: The Boundaries of Civic Space | first1 = Silvia | last1 = Bigliazzi | first2 = Lisanna | last2 = Calvi | publisher = Routledge | date = 2016 | isbn = 978-1-138-83998-4 | location = UK | pages = [https://books.google.com/books?id=fvWPCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA49 49–50] | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=fvWPCgAAQBAJ}}</ref>

[[File:Antakya Archaeological Museum Mosaics in Portico of the Rivers Pyramos and Thisbe in 2019 01.jpg|thumb|center|350px|Pyramus and Thisbe depicted as fresh water deities on a Roman mosaic from [[Antioch]].]]

==Adaptations==
[[Image:Gregorio Pagani Píramo y Tisbe Óleo sobre lienzo. 239 x 180 cm. Galería de los Uffizi. Florencia.jpeg|left|thumb|''Pyramus and Thisbe'' by [[Gregorio Pagani]]. [[Uffizi Gallery]].]]
The story of ''Pyramus and Thisbe'' appears in [[Giovanni Boccaccio]]'s ''[[On Famous Women]]'' as biography number twelve (sometimes thirteen)<ref>Virginia Brown's translation of Giovanni Boccaccio's ''Famous Women'', pp. 27-30; Harvard University Press 2001; {{ISBN|0-674-01130-9}}</ref> 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]], in his ''[[The Legend of Good Women]]'', and [[John Gower]], in his ''[[Confessio Amantis]]'', were the first to tell the story in [[English language|English]]. Gower altered the story somewhat into a [[cautionary tale]]. John Metham's ''[[Amoryus and Cleopes]]'' (1449) is another early English adaptation.

The tragedy of ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' 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.<ref>{{cite book |last= Prunster |first= Nicole|date=2000|title= Romeo and Juliet Before Shakespeare: Four Early Stories of Star-crossed Love|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=qAtaTo_h4Y4C|location= Toronto|publisher= Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies|isbn=0772720150}}</ref> [[Shakespeare]]'s most famous 1590s adaptation is a dramatization of [[Arthur Brooke (poet)|Arthur Brooke]]'s 1562 poem ''[[The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet]]'', itself a translation of a French translation of Da Porto's novella.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://knarf.english.upenn.edu/EtAlia/mnd51.html|title=A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 5, Scene 1|website=knarf.english.upenn.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/msnd/context/literary/shakespeare-ovid-and-the-adaptation-of-pyramus-and-thisbe/|title=A Midsummer Night's Dream: Literary Context Essay|website=SparkNotes}}</ref>

In Shakespeare's ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' (Act V, sc 1), a comedy written in the 1590s, a group of "[[Mechanical (character)|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 (Shakespeare)|Lysander]], because her father [[Egeus]] despises him and wishes for her to marry [[Demetrius (A Midsummer Night's Dream)|Demetrius]], and meanwhile Hermia and Lysander are confident that [[Helena (A Midsummer Night's Dream)|Helena]] is in love with Demetrius.

[[The Beatles]] 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]] as Pyramus, [[John Lennon]] as his lover Thisbe, [[George Harrison]] as Moonshine, and [[Ringo Starr]] 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]] 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."<ref>Recorded on Hyperion Records, CDA66759</ref> In 1768 in [[Vienna]], [[Johann Adolph Hasse]] 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'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.playbill.com/article/harvey-schmidt-fantasticks-composer-dies-at-88|title=Harvey Schmidt, Fantasticks Composer, Dies at 88 {{!}} Playbill|website=Playbill|language=en|access-date=2018-09-13}}</ref> whose 1960 musical adaptation, ''[[The Fantasticks]],'' became the world's longest-running musical.

Pyramus and Thisbe were featured in ''[[The Simpsons]]'' 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==
<gallery widths="140px" mode="packed" heights="140px">
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 |[[Claude Gautherot|Pierre Gautherot]], 1799
</gallery>

==See also==
{{Portal|Literature}}
* [[Latin literature]]
* [[Pyramus and Thisbe Club]], a UK organisation concerned with [[party wall]] legislation

== Citations ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== General references ==
=== Primary sources ===
* Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'' iv.55–166

=== Secondary sources ===
* Bulfinch, Thomas, [https://archive.org/details/agefableorstori00bulfgoog ''The Age of Fable; Or, Stories of Gods and Heroes''] (2nd ed.), Sanborn, Carter, and Bazin, 1856

==External links==
{{Commons category|Pyramus and Thisbe}}
* [http://www.maicar.com/GML/Pyramus.html Pyramus and Thisbe]: Carlos Parada, Greek Mythology link
* [http://www.katawa-shoujo.com/pxt/ ''pXt''] A [[visual novel]] adaptation of the story from ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''
* [http://www.facebook.com/q.leer Queen Leer]: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIkmFmF-KJ8 Why, Thisbe?] (Song and music video)
* [https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/category/vpc-taxonomy-000124 The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Pyramys and Thisbe)]
{{Metamorphoses in Greco-Roman mythology}}
{{Romeo and Juliet}}
{{A Midsummer Night's Dream}}
{{Pyramus and Thisbe}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pyramus And Thisbe}}
[[Category:Pyramus and Thisbe| ]]
[[Category:Ancient Cilicia]]
[[Category:Characters in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Mythological lovers]]
[[Category:Mythological duos]]
[[Category:Metamorphoses characters]]
[[Category:Metamorphoses into bodies of water in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Babylon in fiction]]
[[Category:Romeo and Juliet]]
[[Category:Suicides in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:A Midsummer Night's Dream]]