Babylonian Romeo and Juliet
A legend about the Roman poet Papulias Ophidias, who lived in the period between (43 years BC - 17 years AD). He said that its origin is Babylonian and its name is the Babylonian mulberry tree (the Babylonian love story)
The story takes place in Babylon, where the handsome young man, Pyramus, and the beautiful girl, Thisbe, have lived since their childhood in two neighboring houses, and a deep love story arose between them.
However, their parents did not agree to their marriage, and forbade them from all contact.
But they discovered that there was a crack in the wall separating their house, through which they could speak in whispers.
One day, they agreed to run away together and meet at night under a white mulberry tree just outside the city wall.
So Thisbe went to the meeting place before her lover, and suddenly she saw in front of her a lioness with injuries to her jaw. The girl was terrified and ran away, and the white scarf she was wearing fell from her.
However, the lioness did not chase her and grabbed the white scarf in her bloody mouth
Pyramus came to the meeting place and saw his lover's robe between the lioness's jaws, filled with blood. He was seized with intense fear, and he thought that his beloved had been preyed upon by monsters, so he shouted:
You killed Thisbe
But she won't die alone
So he took out his sword, sheathed it in his side, and fell to the ground
While he was breathing his last, Thisbe, defeated by her fear, came to warn Pyramus of the danger of the lioness that awaited him.
But she was shocked to see her lover dead, and she felt great sadness and great despair, so she had no choice but to take the same sword with which Pyramus killed himself, and killed herself.
The blood of the two lovers flowed on the ground under the white mulberry tree, and the white mulberry tree was quenched with the blood of Pyramus and Thisbe and became red. Therefore, from that time on, the color of the mulberries became eternally red.
Notice the similarity between this story and the story of Romeo and Juliet by the English writer William Shakespeare, who lived in the period between 1564-1616 AD.
Although this Babylonian story preceded the story of Romeo and Juliet by approximately 1,600 years
Source: Stories of Gods and Heroes/babylon the gate of gods/Carter Sanborn and Bazin