Thisbe

Thisbe is a tragic heroine from ancient mythology, best known for her doomed love story with Pyramus. Their tale, most famously recorded by the Roman poet Ovid in Metamorphoses, tells of two young lovers in Babylon whose families forbid their relationship.

Separated by a wall between their homes, Thisbe and Pyramus whisper their love through a crack in the stone. They plan to elope and meet beneath a mulberry tree outside the city. When Thisbe arrives first, she is frightened away by a lioness, dropping her veil as she flees. The lioness stains the veil with blood, and when Pyramus later finds it, he believes Thisbe has been killed. In despair, he takes his own life. When Thisbe returns and discovers him dying, she also chooses death rather than life without him.

Their story is one of passionate love, miscommunication, and tragic fate, and it later inspired works such as Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.