Discussion Prompt (P. 49 #1)

In Ovid's tale of the two unfortunate lovers, Pyramus' gruesome suicide is essential to the storyline. After finding the torn and blood-drenched veil of Thisbe, Pyramus believes she is dead and feels that he is to blame. His reaction is to impulsively kill himself by plunging a sword into his groin. Ovid describes his death with violent and gory diction. For example, he could have just said, "Pyramus used his sword to take his own life, and died suddenly under the tree." However, Ovid uses phrases like, "blood spurting," "warm wound," and compares the shower of Pyramus' blood to a broken pipe in a fountain.

Although it is unsettling for some to read these disturbing passages, they are fundamental pieces of the story line. The story of Pyramus and Thisbe is from a collection of Ovid's work called The Metamorphoses. In this book, Ovid wrote epics about things changing and offered some ideas to why certain things are the way they are. In this story, Ovid explains why the fruit of the tree, which used to be snow white, has turned purple/red. He uses the death of Pyramus, most importantly the blood of Pyramus, to create a stain on the fruit and a deep red liquid for the roots of the tree to soak up. If Pyramus hadn't bled so uncontrollably and violently, the fruit couldn't have turned red.