The Mutation Mulberry Ripple is one of my favorite markings. Its fascinating color adds a perfect touch to a dragon's skin. After some research, I found an intriguing myth regarding the origins of the mulberries' dark color I want to share with you.
Pyramus and Thisbe are two lovers in Babylon city who occupy connected houses. Their respective parents, driven by rivalry, forbid them to wed. They whisper their love for each other through a crack in the wall. They agree to meet near a tomb under a mulberry tree and state their feelings for each other. Thisbe arrives first, but upon seeing a lioness with a bloody mouth from a recent kill, she flees, leaving behind her cloak. When Pyramus arrives, he is horrified at the sight of Thisbe's cloak: the lioness had torn it and left traces of blood behind, as well as its tracks. Assuming a beast has killed her, Pyramus kills himself, falling on his sword, a typical Babylonian way to commit suicide. And, in turn, splashing blood on the white mulberry leaves. Pyramus's blood stains the white mulberry fruits, turning them dark. Thisbe returns, eager to tell Pyramus what had happened to her, but she finds Pyramus's dead body under the shade of the mulberry tree. Thisbe, after praying to their parents and the gods to have them buried together, and during a brief period of mourning, stabs herself with the same sword. In the end, the gods listen to Thisbe's lament and forever change the color of the mulberry fruits into the stained color to honor forbidden love. Pyramus and Thisbe proved to be faithful lovers to each other until the very end.
Did you recognize another famous tragedy? Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is inspired by Pyramus and Thisbe myth. There were other adaptations of the same tale in Boccacio's Decameron. Chaucer, in his Legend of Good Women, and John Gower, in his Confessio Amantis, were the first ones to tell the story in English.
