Myths: Ovid's Metamorphosis “Pyramus and Thisbe”

“Pyramus and Thisbe” was a tragedy love story during the Babylonian century. Young Pyramus and Thisbe lived next door to each other. They grew up together and were a deeply in love and longed to get married. Their relationship was forbid by their parents. Separated by a wall, they have no way to communicate to one another. At last, they found a crack on the wall and eventually used it to whisper their love for each other. Their love grew stronger until they couldn’t refrain again. Finally, they decided to meet at a tomb near a mulberries tree and run away. That night, Thisbe arrived first. She saw a lioness with a mouth bloody from a recent kill nearby the stream. She was horrified and quickly run away, leaving behind her veil. The lioness found her veil and played with it. Soon after the lioness left, Pyramus arrived. He tracked no sign of Thisbe but her blood contained veil. He assumed that a fierce beast had killed her. He blamed himself for coming late and so he stabbed himself to death, splashing blood on the white mulberry leaves. Pyramus' blood stained the white mulberry fruits, turning them dark. When Thisbe returned, she was so eager to share with Pyramus what had happened to her, but she found Pyramus’ dead body under the mulberry tree. Thisbe couldn’t bear the pain losing her lover. She took Pyramus’ sword and stabbed herself. In the end, the gods listened to Thisbe's lament, and forever changed the color of the mulberry fruits into the stained color to honor the forbidden love.

Myths, like legends and folktales, provides rich source of material for teaching lessons. Students can improve their critical thinking skills by determining the fundamental themes carried by the story. Teacher can conduct activities such as drama in class. This activity will help the students to understand the story as myths is often constructed chronologically. They will start to imagine the story and have the picture in their mind. The ability to imagine also allows the students to understand the story where they actually learn to infer the story from a contextual setting to a pictorial setting! Besides that, students will improve their language competency, vocabulary knowledge and also cultivating good listening and reading skills. Nevertheless, while working together in a group for the drama, students learn the importance of team work. They can also improve their communication skills while working as a group!