Discussion Prompt Pg. 55 #2 (147 -166)

"In what ways do the story's closing lines (165-66) aptly conclude the darkness/death imagery which Ovid has developed throughout the narrative?"

To begin, the closing lines translate as:

For the black color is in the fruit, when it matures, and what remains of the
funeral pyre, rests in one urn.

The darkness imagery is represented here by the color of the mulberries, as black is the darkest of all colors. Death imagery is also seen in the image of both Pyramus and Thisbe's ashes in one urn. These final images appropriately conclude what Ovid has been saying previously in the poem.

Other darkness & death imagery:

1. Line 88: "Sub umbra arboris"

• "Under the shade of the tree"
• Shade represents the dark
• This is the place where they plan to meet

2. Line 100: "Obscurum antrum"

• "Dark cave"
• Forshadows Thisbe's death
• She runs into the dark cave when she sees the lion

3. Line 108: "Una duos nox perdet amantes."

• "One night has destoryed two lovers."
• Night is dark...Pyramus says that the night (darkness) has caused their death
• Foreshadows Pyramus' own death