[Defense of Ovid: annotations on Metamorphoses IV 119-123)]

The description of Pyramus' suicide in the Metamorphoses has been commented on by many scholars. There has been particular criticism of the comparison between the unfortunate lover's wound, squirting out blood, and a burst water-main. This has been supposed to show yet again how Ovid, in spite of his undoubtedly great talent, is capable of ruining a story by exaggeration. Nevertheless, a medical look at his wording leads to quite a different judgement. In his simile of the burst water-main Ovid obviously had in mind the haemorrhage from a damaged femoral artery, which can shoot blood to a considerable distance, sometimes over several yards. Only in this way can the fruits of the mulberry tree, hanging high over the wounded Pyramus, be moistened with blood and painted dark. This is, after all, the metamorphosis which justifies the inclusion of the story in the whole corpus. As it is possible for a person fatally wounded in this way to survive for some hours, the poet has to guarantee that Pyramus dies within minutes of turning his sword against himself. Only so can Thisbe, returning quickly, confess her love for Pyramus in such a heartfelt way and follow him at once. The haemorrhage from a femoral artery my indeed kill a person within a few minutes. Therefore Ovid's description is neither gruesome nor tasteless but simply natural and dramatically conclusive. The comparison with the water-main is one which would easily have occurred to the poet. From Ovid' point of view and that of his contemporaries, who had no knowledge of the circulation of the blood, no better comparison can be imagined than that between the blood vessels of the human body and urban water-pipes, a technical achievement of which the Romans were particularly proud.