By Ovid (43 BC-AD 17) From Book IV of Metamorphoses A Study Guide | ||||||||||||||||||
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Based on a 1717 English Translation by John Dryden, Alexander Pope, and Others By Michael J. Cummings © 2008 .......In Babylon during the reign of Queen Semiramis, Pyramus and Thisbe live in separate houses sharing the same roof. Of all the young men in the region, Pyramus has no equal in the magnificence of his looks, and Thisbe is fairer than the fairest nymph. .......When they grew up, their acquaintance turned into friendship—and friendship into burning love. But their parents now stand between them, forbidding them to see each other or even to speak of their love. However, "The fire of love the more it is supprest, / The more it glows and rages in the breast." When the wall dividing their homes was built, shrinkage in the cement left a crack in the wall that went unnoticed except by the two lovers. Through it, they whisper their sorrows and joys. Desperate with love, they attempt to kiss, but the crack is too small. Even so, they often remain at the wall through the night. .......In time, they decide to run away and meet at the tomb of Ninus, next to a tree bearing white berries. During the hours before their planned nighttime escape, they are “impatient for the friendly dusk" to appear and “chide the slowness of departing day." After the sun sinks in the western sea, Thisbe steals away, her face veiled, and quickly arrives at the tomb. And then "a lioness rush’d o’er the plain, Grimly besmear'd with blood of oxen slain." .......The frightening sight quickens her thirst, and she runs to a nearby brook to drink, losing her veil along the way. Afterward, in a nearby cave, she calms down as she awaits the arrival of Pyramus. Meanwhile, the lion roams back across the plain, discovers the veil, “and mouthing it all o’er, / With bloody jaws the lifeless prey she tore." .......Pyramus, who had to delay his departure until he could sneak past the watchful eyes in his home, arrives late. In the moonlight, he sees the paw prints of the lioness and, to his horror, finds the torn and bloody veil near the tomb. He upbraids himself 'Tis I am guilty, I have thee betray'd,.......He kisses the veil and cries over it, then withdraws his sword and plunges it into his chest. When he falls back onto the ground, blood spurts so high that it stains the white berries on the tree. They turn deep red, and the roots of the tree alter themselves so that they will produce only purple berries henceforth. .......After Thisbe leaves the cave to search for Pyramus, she hears him sighing near the tomb. When she arrives there, she recognizes the tomb and the tree. But the color of the berries bewilders her. And then she finds the body of Pyramus, quivering. “She shriek'd, she tore her hair, she beat her breast." .......She takes Pyramus in her arms, bathes him in her tears, and kisses him, asking “Whence sprung thy cruel fate?" He opens his eyes for a moment, then closes them and dies. When Thisbe sees the bloody veil and the sword, she realizes what happened. She then says she hopes that the cruel parents of her and Pyramus will witness the results of a prayer she recites: "Oh! see our ashes in one urn confin'd, / Whom love at first, and fate at last has join'd." .......She then asks that the tree display the blood of not only Pyramus but also her own. And then in her bosom [she] plung'd the sword, Setting . The action is set in Babylon in the Ninth Century BC during the reign of Semiramis (Greek name for Sammu-ramat). Babylon was the capital of Babylonia, a country in southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). Ruins of Babylon, said to be the largest city in the world when it was at the height of its power and glory, exist about 55 miles south of Baghdad. Characters
Type
of Work
Pronunciations of key words in this study guide are as follows: Ovid (Ah vid), Pyramus (PEER uh mihs), Thisbe (THIZ be), Semiramis (suh MEER uh mihs), Ninus (NEE nuhs). Cultural
Background: Parental Control of Children
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Themes . All-Consuming Love The love between Pyramus and Thisbe is so strong that they defy the will of their parents and run away. Mischance Bad luck (or the power of fate) thwarts the plans of the young lovers when the lioness finds Thisbe's lost veil and chews at it with jaws stained with the blood of another animal. Climax
. .......Although he based the tales in Metamorphoses on existing stories, Ovid presents them with a freshness and originality that made them uniquely his own. His writing is vivid, elegant, and succinct, with the stories—including "Pyramus and Thisbe"—generally moving swiftly from beginning to end without tedious digressions or inflated language. Metamorphoses was highly popular with readers of the Augustan age (27 BC to AD 14, when Caesar Augustus ruled the Roman Empire) and became one of the best read books of the Renaissance, influencing Shakespeare and other prominent writers. The themes and motifs are as timely today as they were 2,000 years ago. .......Ovid wrote Metamorphoses in heroic hexameter, the dignified verse format of ancient epic poetry. Heroic hexameter consists of unrhymed lines that each contain six feet. Each foot is either a dactyl (a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables) or a spondee (two stressed syllables). The number of syllables per line varies depending on the number of dactyls and spondees in it. A dactyl tends to accelerate the narrative in the same way that an allegro and a presto accelerate music; a spondee tends to slow the narrative like an adagio in music. Ovid chose dactyls more often than spondees so that the narrative moves along briskly.
Pyramus
and Thisbe in Latin and English
.......When
translating Latin classics into English, writers generally interpret the
Latin words rather than presenting a verbatim rendering of them. One reason
for this approach is that Latin inflection and word order differ substantially
from English inflection and word order.
Study Questions and Essay Topics 1. How
would you react if your parents opposed your desire to marry someone they
did not like?
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