Pyramus and Thisbe

The Original Romeo and Juliet

Pyramus and Thisbe is one of the most influential love stories in Western literature — the tale of two young lovers forbidden from being together, whose miscommunication leads to double suicide. Shakespeare borrowed the plot directly for Romeo and Juliet.

Pyramus and Thisbe lived in Babylon in neighboring houses separated by a shared wall. Their families forbade their relationship, but the lovers discovered a crack in the wall through which they could whisper to each other. They arranged to meet secretly at night beneath a mulberry tree outside the city walls. Thisbe arrived first and saw a lioness with blood-soaked jaws from a recent kill. She fled in terror, dropping her veil, which the lioness mauled and bloodied. When Pyramus arrived and found the bloody veil, he assumed Thisbe had been killed. Overcome with grief, he fell on his sword. Thisbe returned to find Pyramus dying and stabbed herself with the same sword. Their blood stained the white mulberries permanently red — which, according to Ovid, is why mulberries are dark to this day. The story comes primarily from Ovid's Metamorphoses and was well known throughout the ancient world. Its influence on Shakespeare is unmistakable — forbidden love, secret meetings, a miscommunication about death leading to real death, and grieving families who realize their feud caused the tragedy.