Editing Pyramus and Thisbe (section)

=== Origins and other versions ===
Ovid's is the oldest surviving version of the story, published in 8 AD, but he adapted an existing [[aetiological myth]]. While in Ovid's telling Pyramus and Thisbe lived in [[Babylon]], and [[Ctesias]] had placed the tomb of his imagined king [[Ninus]] near that city, the myth probably originated in [[Cilicia]] (part of Ninus' [[Babylonia]]n empire) as Pyramos is the historical Greek name of the local [[Ceyhan River]]. The metamorphosis in the primary story involves Pyramus changing into this river and Thisbe into a nearby spring. A 2nd-century mosaic unearthed near [[Nea Paphos]] on [[Cyprus]] depicts this older version of the myth.<ref>{{cite book |last1= Miller|first1= John F.|last2= Newlands|first2= Carole E.|date= 2014|title= A Handbook to the Reception of Ovid|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=7fijBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA38|publisher= John Wiley & Sons|pages= 38–39|isbn= 978-1118876121}}</ref> This alternative version also survives in the ''[[progymnasmata]]'', a work by [[Nicolaus Sophista]], a Greek sophist and rhetor who lived during the fifth century AD.<ref>[[Nicolaus Sophista]], ''[[Progymnasmata]]'' 2.9</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Μυθογραφοι. Scriptores poeticæ historiæ Græci. Edidit A. W. Gr | first1 = Anton | last1 = Westermann | date = 1843 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=phldAAAAcAAJ | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=phldAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA384 384]}}</ref>

[[File:Antakya Archaeological Museum Mosaics in Portico of the Rivers Pyramos and Thisbe in 2019 01.jpg|thumb|center|350px|Pyramus and Thisbe depicted as fresh water deities on a Roman mosaic from [[Antioch]].]]