SOURCE: Keith, A. M. “Etymological Wordplay in Ovid's ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ (Met. 4.55-166).” Classical Quarterly 51, New Series, no. 1 (2001): 309-12.

In the following essay, Keith gives examples of how Ovid uses wordplay to reinforce narrative relationships.

A wide range of readers and artists has enjoyed Ovid's ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’,¹ but the tale has provoked critical attention on two counts: Ovid's source(s) cannot be identified² and the simile applied to Pyramus' death agonies ruptures the sentimental tone of the narrative (4.121-4).³ In classical Greek literature, Pyramus is the name of a Cilician river mentioned by geographical writers and historians in geographical contexts,⁴ while Thisbe is the name of a famous Boeotian city⁵ and an obscure Cilician spring.⁶ Late antique Greek mythographers give these names to human figures, young lovers who die tragically and are metamorphosed into the Cilician river and spring.⁷ No extant Latin versions of the tale are...