Pyramus & Thisbe
Πύραμος, Θίσβη
Neighboring lovers who died together over a single misunderstanding.
With their families opposed, they spoke only through a crack in the wall — and one night agreed to meet under a mulberry tree.
Thisbe arrived first, fled from a lion, and dropped her cloak; Pyramus found it bloodstained and stabbed himself.
Returning, Thisbe followed him. Ovid writes that the white mulberry's fruit has been red ever since.
SourcesOvid, Metamorphoses
Commonly confused
This story is the skeleton of Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare knew the plot — and in A Midsummer Night's Dream he stages it outright as a farcical play-within-a-play.