Pyramus and Thisbe, << PIHR uh muhs and THIHZ bee >>, are young lovers in an ancient legend. Pyramus and Thisbe lived next door to each other in Babylon. They fell in love, but their parents would not let them marry or even spend time with each other. They had to talk through a crack in the wall between their houses.
Finally, they planned to meet at night under a mulberry tree outside the city. Thisbe arrived first. She was frightened by a lioness that had bloody jaws from killing an animal. The frightened Thisbe ran away, dropping her veil as she fled. The lioness tore the veil apart with its bloody mouth. Pyramus then arrived and saw the tracks of the lioness and the blood on the veil. He thought Thisbe had been killed and stabbed himself in grief. Thisbe returned to the scene and found Pyramus dead. She then stabbed herself with his dagger.
The Roman poet Ovid told the story of Pyramus and Thisbe in his Metamorphoses. William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream includes an amateur theater group that performs a comic adaptation of the legend.
