Metamorphoses

Like Pentheus, the daughters of King Minyas scorn Bacchus. One day, while they avoid his festival, they begin telling tales.

In their first tale, Pyramus and Thisbe are two star-crossed lovers from enemy families. They arrange to meet at a tomb near a white-berried mulberry tree. When Thisbe arrives first and sees a lioness, she flees, leaving behind her shawl. Then Pyramus arrives and sees the shawl. Thinking Thisbe is dead, Pyramus kills himself. When Thisbe returns and sees Pyramus dead, she says, “men shall say of me, poor wretched Thisbe, / I was the cause and comrade of your fate” (78). She then kills herself, and her blood stains the mulberries purple.

In the sister’s next tale, the Sun falls in love with but rapes the princess Leucothoe. Another girl, Clytie, becomes jealous and spreads rumors about Leucothoe, leading her father to bury Leucothoe alive. The Sun is distraught and turns the dead Leucothoe into a frankincense shrub. Abandoned, Clytie wastes away into the heliotrope flower.