PyramusThisbeANCIENT

Hellenistic floor mosaic with the myth of Pyramus and Thisbe, late 3rd Century BC, in situ at Paphos, Cyprus.

The floor mosaic antedates Ovid's Metamorphoses by more than 200 years and, although, some elements differ from his, the essentials are consistent. Thisbe has dropped her cloak and the leopardess marrs it with blood-soaked jaws, which Pyramus takes to be evidence that his lover has been devoured before he could arrive at their trysting place. In this version, Pyramus has not taken his own life with his sword but rather poses in posture and garb of a river god (overturned jug from which water flows and the reed in his hand and wreathing his head, as well as a the cornucopia in his right hand). Morford and Leonardon call this (chapter 25) a "remarkable conflation of the two versions of the legend." (See Wechtlin's woodcut, =2.0100_Wechtlin)