Thisbe

• A little town on the coast of Boeotia, celebrated for its wild doves, now Kakosia, Plin. 4, 7, 12, § 26; Stat. Th. 7, 261; 9, 768.
• —Hence, This-baeus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to Thisbe, Thisbaean: columbae, Ov. M. 11, 300.—
• II A maiden beloved by Pyramus, Ov. M. 4, 55 sq.

(Θίσβη).

1. A beautiful maiden at Babylon, was beloved by Pyramus. The lovers living in adjoining houses, often secretly conversed with each other through an opening in the wall, as their parents would not sanction their marriaqge. Once they agreed upon a rendezvous at the tomb of Ninus. Thisbe arrived first, and while she was waiting for Pyramus, she perceived a lioness who had just torn to pieces an ox, and took to flight. While running she lost her garment, which the lioness soiled with blood. In the mean time Pyramus arrived, and finding her garment covered with blood, he imagined that she had been murdered, and made away with himself under a mulberry tree, the fruit of which henceforth was as red as blood. Thisbe, who afterwards found the body of her lover, likewise killed herself. (Ov. Met. 4.55-165; comp. Anthol. Lat. i. p. 106, &c. ed. Burrn.)

2. A Boeotian nymph, from whom the town of Thisbederived its name. (Paus. 9.32.2.) [L.S]

THISBE (Θίσβη, Hom., Paus., Steph. B. s. v.;Θίσβαι, Strab., Xen.: Eth. Θισβαῖος), a town of Boeotia, described by Strabo as situated at a short distance from the sea, under the southern side of Helicon, bordering upon the confines of Thespiae and Coroneia. (Strab. 9. p. 411.) Thisbe is mentioned by Homer, who says that it abounds in wild pigeons (πολυτρήτρωνά τε Θίσβην, Il. 2.502); and both Strabo and Stephlanus B. remark that this epithet was given to the city from the abundance of wild pigeons at the harbour of Thisbe. Xenophon remarks that Cleombrotus marched through the territory of Thisbe on his way to Creusis before the battle of Leuctra. (Hell. 6.4.3.) The only public building at Thisbe mentioned by Pausanias (Paus. 9.32.3) was a temple of Hercules, to whom a festival was celebrated. The same writer adds that between the mountain on the sea-side and the mountain at the foot of which the town stood, there is a plain which would be inundated by the water flowing into it, were it not for a mole or causeway constructed through the middle, by means of which the water is diverted every year into the part of the plain lying on one side of the causeway, while that on the other is cultivated. The ruins of Thisbe are found at Kakósia. The position is between two great summits of the mountain, now called Karamúnghi and Paleovuná, which rise majestically above the vale, clothed with trees, in the upper part, and covered with snow at the top. The modern village lies in a little hollow surrounded on all sides by low cliffs connected with the last falls of the mountain. The walls of Thisbe were about a mile in circuit, following the crest of the cliffs which surround the village; they are chiefly preserved on the side towards Dobrená and the south-east. The masonry is for the most part of the fourth order, or faced with equal layers of large, oblong, quadrangular stones on the outside, the interior as usual being filled with loose rubble. On the principal height which lies towards the mountain, and which is an entire mass of rock, appear some reparations of a later date than the rest of the walls, and there are many Hellenic foundations on the face of this rock towards the village. In the cliffs outside the walls, to the northwest and south, there are many sepulchral excavations.( Leake, Northern Greece, vol. 2. p. 506.) Leake observed the mole or causeway which Pausanias describes, and which serves for a road across the marsh to the port. The same writer remarks that, as the plain of Thisbe is completely surrounded by heights, there is no issue for the river which rises in the Ascraea and here terminates. The river crosses the causeway into the marsh by two openings, the closing of which in the winter or spring would at any time cause the upper part of the plain to be inundated, and leave the lower fit for cultivation in the summer; but as the river is now allowed to flow constantly through them, the western side is always in a state of marsh, and the ground has become much higher on the eastern side.

The port of Thisbe is now called Vathý. The shore is very rocky, and abounds in wild pigeons, as Strabo and Stephanus have observed; but there is also a considerable number at Kakósia itself. The Roman poets also allude to the pigeons of Thisbe. Hence Ovid (Ov. Met. 11.300) speaks of the Thisbaeae columbae,a nd Statius (Theb. 7.261) describes Thisbe as Dionaeis avibus circumsona.T hisbe is mentioned both by Pliny (Plin. Nat. 4.7. s. 12) and Ptolemy (Ptol. 3.15.20).

(Θίσβη), afterwards Thisbae (Θίσβαι). Now Kakosia. A town of Boeotia, on the borders of Phocis, and between Mount Helicon and the Corinthian Gulf.

(Θίσβη). A beautiful Babylonian maiden, beloved by Pyramus. The lovers, living in adjoining houses, often secretly conversed with each other through an opening in the wall, as their parents would not sanction their marriage. Once they agreed upon a rendezvous at the tomb of Ninus. Thisbé arrived first, and, while she was waiting for Pyramus, she perceived a lioness, which had just torn to pieces an ox, and took to flight. While running she lost her garment, which the lioness smeared with blood. In the meantime Pyramus arrived, and finding her garment covered with blood, he imagined that she had been murdered, and made away with himself under a mulberry-tree, the fruit of which henceforth was as red as blood. Thisbé, who afterwards found the body of her lover, likewise killed herself (Ovid, Met. iv. 55-465). The story is burlesqued by Shakespeare in a well-known episode in A Midsummer-Night's Dream.

A city at the S foot of Mt. Helikon, on the site of the modern town; it is situated in a corridor 350-700 m wide between a rocky hill to the N (Palaiokastro) and, to the S, the edge of a plateau linked to Mt. Helikon (Neokastro).

The site had an important Mycenaean settlement; in Classical times, up to 338 B.C., Thisbe formed part of one of the districts of Thespiai. Thereafter the city was independent. In 172 B.C. it sided with Perseus but was forced to open its gates to Flamininus; a senatus consultum of October, 170, settled the matter to the advantage of the Romans (IG VII 2225). The city ramparts ran around the two hills and the lower city. A wall of coarse polygonal masonry runs across the NW part of Palaiokastro (acropolis). The E wall of the lower city and the Neokastro rampart are of regular 4th c. masonry; the eight towers have finely grooved corners. The W rampart has disappeared. Remains of the ancient city include some hundred reliefs and inscriptions dating from the 5th c. B.C. to the 3d c. A.D. (at the Thebes Museum and in modern buildings at Thisvi and Korini, 1.5 km to the SE), as well as quantities of pottery ranging from the Mycenaean to the Roman period.

To prevent flooding in the lower (E) section of the Thisbe basin a long dike was built N-S, noted by Pausanias; two sluices regulated the passage of water. The road running from Thisbe to its port, now Vathy, on the Gulf of Corinth, passed over the dike.

J. G. Frazer, Paus. Des. Gr. V (1898) 160-64; Fiehn in RE (1936) s.v. Thisbe; F. G. Maier in AthMitt 73 (1958) 17-25P; P. Roesch, Thespies et la Confédération béotienne (1965); N. Papahadjis, Pausaniou Hellados Periegesis V (1969) 191-94MPI.

• Paus. 9.32.3

• Paus. 9.32.2
• its distance from Bulis: Paus. 10.37.2