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Bacchus
Pyramus is a teenage character in a story that one of daughters of Minyas tells while she and her sisters are weaving and abstaining from the festival for Bacchus. Pyramus falls in love with Thisbe—a girl who lives next door but whom his parents don’t approve of him marrying. Pyramus and Thisbe decide to flee their city so they can be together, agreeing to meet at night at a mulberry tree—a tree that then had white berries. Pyramus arrives at the tree after Thisbe and finds her bloody cloak that she’d dropped after running to hide from a lion. Thinking Thisbe was killed, Pyramus kills himself under the mulberry tree. Later, blaming herself for Pyramus’s death, Thisbe kills herself beside him. Their blood seeps into the soil and permanently stains the mulberry berries red.
Pyramus Quotes in Metamorphoses
The Metamorphoses quotes below are all either spoken by Pyramus or refer to Pyramus . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Book 4: Pyramus and Thisbe
Quotes
We both implore you to grant this prayer: as our hearts were truly
united in love, and death has at last united our bodies,
lay us to rest in a single tomb. Begrudge us not that!
And you, O tree, whose branches are already casting their shadows
on one poor body and soon will be overshadowing two,
preserve the marks of our death; let your fruit forever be dark
as a token of mourning, a monument marking the blood of two lovers.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Metamorphoses LitChart as a printable PDF.
Pyramus Quotes in Metamorphoses
The Metamorphoses quotes below are all either spoken by Pyramus or refer to Pyramus . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Book 4: Pyramus and Thisbe
Quotes
We both implore you to grant this prayer: as our hearts were truly
united in love, and death has at last united our bodies,
lay us to rest in a single tomb. Begrudge us not that!
And you, O tree, whose branches are already casting their shadows
on one poor body and soon will be overshadowing two,
preserve the marks of our death; let your fruit forever be dark
as a token of mourning, a monument marking the blood of two lovers.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
