Ovid: Pyramus and Thisbe - “Love, Myths and Other Stories” – XXXI
The tragedy takes place at night near a fountain, where the two young protagonists had set their love meeting. Thisbe – “audacem faciebat amor” ,“love made her bold” – reaches the fountain before Pyramos, but, frightened by a lioness dirty with the blood of the oxen that had just mauled, flees losing her veil. When the young man arrives, he sees on the ground Thisbe’s veil and the traces of the lioness, and, believing that his beloved has been mauled by the beast, kills himself with his sword.
“… Velamina Thisbes
tollit et ad pactae secum fert arboris umbram,
utque dedit notae lacrimas, dedit oscula vesti,
«accipe nunc» inquit «nostri quoque sanguinis haustus!»
quoque erat accinctus, demisit in ilia ferrum.
Nec mora, ferventi moriens e vulnere traxit
[met IV, 115– 120]
“He picks up Thisbe's cloak and carries it to the shade of the trysting-tree. And while he kisses the familiar garment and bedews it with his tears he cries: “Drink now my blood too.” So saying, he drew the sword which he wore girt about him, plunged the blade into his side, and straightway,
with his dying effort, drew the sword from his warm wound.
Once overcome her fear, Thisbe returns to the fountain where Pyramos is agonizing. Overwhelmed by despair, she kills herself with the same sword a moment later than her beloved could see her face for the last time before dying.
Sed postquam remorata suos cognovit amores,
percutit indignos claro plangore lacertos
et laniata comas amplexaque corpus amatum
vulnera supplevit lacrimis fletumque cruori
miscuit et gelidis in vultibus oscula figens
«Pyrame,» clamavit «quis te mihi casus ademit?
Pyrame, responde! tua te carissima Thisbe
nominat: exaudi vultusque attolle iacentes!»
ad nomen Thisbes oculos iam morte gravatos
Pyramus erexit visaque recondidit illa.
Quae postquam vestemque suam cognovit et ense
vidit ebur vacuum, «tua te manus» inquit «amorque
perdidit, infelix! est et mihi fortis in unum
hoc manus, est et amor: dabit hic in vulnera vires. …»
[met IV, 137– 153]
Translation: Frank Justus Miller, “Ovid - Metamorphoses”
“But when after a little while she recognizes her lover, she smites her innocent arms with loud blows of grief, and tears her hair ; and embracing the well-beloved form, she fills his wounds with tears, mingling these with his blood. And as she kissed his lips, now cold in death, she wailed :
“O my Pyramus, what mischance has reft you from me? Pyramus! Answer me. Tis your dearest Thisbe calling you. Oh, listen, and lift your drooping head!“
At the name of Thisbe, Pyramus lifted his eyes, now heavy with death, and having looked upon her face, closed them again.
Now when she saw her own cloak and the ivory scabbard empty of the sword, she said :
“ Twas your own hand and your love, poor boy, that took your life. I, too, have a hand brave for this one deed ; I, too, have love. …”
So Thysbe speaks, and fitting the point beneath her breast, she falls forward on the sword which is still warm with her lover's blood.
Ovid: Pyramus and Thisbe - “Love, Myths and Other Stories” – XXXI
The tragedy takes place at night near a fountain, where the two young protagonists had set their love meeting. Thisbe – “audacem faciebat amor” ,“love made her bold” – reaches the fountain before Pyramos, but, frightened by a lioness dirty with the blood of the oxen that had just mauled, flees losing her veil. When the young man arrives, he sees on the ground Thisbe’s veil and the traces of the lioness, and, believing that his beloved has been mauled by the beast, kills himself with his sword.
“… Velamina Thisbes
tollit et ad pactae secum fert arboris umbram,
utque dedit notae lacrimas, dedit oscula vesti,
«accipe nunc» inquit «nostri quoque sanguinis haustus!»
quoque erat accinctus, demisit in ilia ferrum.
Nec mora, ferventi moriens e vulnere traxit
[met IV, 115– 120]
“He picks up Thisbe's cloak and carries it to the shade of the trysting-tree. And while he kisses the familiar garment and bedews it with his tears he cries: “Drink now my blood too.” So saying, he drew the sword which he wore girt about him, plunged the blade into his side, and straightway,
with his dying effort, drew the sword from his warm wound.
Once overcome her fear, Thisbe returns to the fountain where Pyramos is agonizing. Overwhelmed by despair, she kills herself with the same sword a moment later than her beloved could see her face for the last time before dying.
Sed postquam remorata suos cognovit amores,
percutit indignos claro plangore lacertos
et laniata comas amplexaque corpus amatum
vulnera supplevit lacrimis fletumque cruori
miscuit et gelidis in vultibus oscula figens
«Pyrame,» clamavit «quis te mihi casus ademit?
Pyrame, responde! tua te carissima Thisbe
nominat: exaudi vultusque attolle iacentes!»
ad nomen Thisbes oculos iam morte gravatos
Pyramus erexit visaque recondidit illa.
Quae postquam vestemque suam cognovit et ense
vidit ebur vacuum, «tua te manus» inquit «amorque
perdidit, infelix! est et mihi fortis in unum
hoc manus, est et amor: dabit hic in vulnera vires. …»
[met IV, 137– 153]
Translation: Frank Justus Miller, “Ovid - Metamorphoses”
“But when after a little while she recognizes her lover, she smites her innocent arms with loud blows of grief, and tears her hair ; and embracing the well-beloved form, she fills his wounds with tears, mingling these with his blood. And as she kissed his lips, now cold in death, she wailed :
“O my Pyramus, what mischance has reft you from me? Pyramus! Answer me. Tis your dearest Thisbe calling you. Oh, listen, and lift your drooping head!“
At the name of Thisbe, Pyramus lifted his eyes, now heavy with death, and having looked upon her face, closed them again.
Now when she saw her own cloak and the ivory scabbard empty of the sword, she said :
“ Twas your own hand and your love, poor boy, that took your life. I, too, have a hand brave for this one deed ; I, too, have love. …”
So Thysbe speaks, and fitting the point beneath her breast, she falls forward on the sword which is still warm with her lover's blood.