Pyramus and Thisbe
heroPyramus and Thisbe were neighbours who fell in love but were forbidden to meet — their tragic miscommunication at a lion-bloodied mulberry tree became the model for Romeo and Juliet.
The Myth
They whispered through a crack in the wall between their houses. They planned to meet at a mulberry tree outside the city. Thisbe arrived first and fled from a lion, dropping her veil. The lion bloodied it. When Pyramus found the bloodied veil, he believed Thisbe dead and stabbed himself. Thisbe returned, found him dying, and killed herself. Their blood stained the mulberries permanently dark. The story appears in Ovid and was Shakespeare's direct source for Romeo and Juliet.
Parents
Various (Babylonian setting)
Symbols
Fun Fact
Shakespeare used this story twice — seriously as the basis for Romeo and Juliet, and comically in the play-within-a-play in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
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