Three love stories; three caves; three suicides : Aeneas and Dido, Pyramus and Thisbe, Malchus and his ‘wife'

Abstract

In her commentary on Jerome’s Vita Malchi, in the section called ‘Literary form and texture’ Gray discusses the existing literature on which Jerome drew in composing Vita Malchi. She provides a detailed account of the sources and possible influences on Jerome under the headings Christian literature, biblical quotations and allusions, and secular literature. In a previous article, I have indicated multiple references and allusions to both classical sources and the Bible in this work of St Jerome. In this article the focus falls on a possible allusion to the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, a source which has not previously been considered amongst the possible influences on Vita Malchi. The love stories of Aeneas and Dido and Pyramus and Thisbe are compared to and contrasted with the story of Malchus and his ‘wife’.