Thisbe

Thisbe was a Babylonian maiden in a classical myth, famously recounted by Ovid in his Metamorphoses. Her story is intertwined with that of her lover, Pyramus, and together they form one of the earliest known tales of star-crossed lovers.

According to the myth, Thisbe and Pyramus lived in adjacent houses and fell deeply in love. Their parents, however, forbade their union. Despite this obstacle, the young couple communicated through a crack in the wall separating their homes, whispering their affections to each other. They eventually devised a plan to elope and meet at a designated spot outside the city walls, near a mulberry tree.

Thisbe arrived at the meeting place first, but a lioness, having just drunk its fill, approached the scene. Frightened, Thisbe fled and dropped her veil. The lioness, with blood on its jaws from a recent kill, approached the veil and tore it. When Pyramus arrived and saw the bloodied veil, he assumed Thisbe had been killed by the lioness. In his despair, Pyramus took his own life.

Thisbe, returning to the rendezvous point, discovered the tragic scene of Pyramus's death. Seeing his sword and the blood, she understood what had happened. Overwhelmed by grief and unwilling to live without her beloved, Thisbe also ended her own life, stabbing herself with Pyramus's sword. The myth is often cited as an explanation for the deep red color of the fruit of the mulberry tree, which, according to the legend, became stained by the lovers' blood.