Stories of love made impossible by physical distance - stories of longing, heartache, and yearning in European literature and art.
Love thwarted by outside forces is a common literary theme. It can be found in many cultures and time periods - from Europe, India and China through South America to the Middle East. Often these tragic relationships are forbidden by parents, existing marriages, differences in social or financial status, warring countries, or fairytale barriers.
We highlight here four stories of love made impossible by physical distance - stories of longing, heartache, and yearning in European literature and art - a feeling a lot of us might get to know well in these times of quarantine and social distancing.
Pyramus and Thisbe
The story of Pyramus and Thisbe is often seen as the blueprint for the classic play Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare coined the term 'star-crossed lovers' - Pyramus and Thisbe were prime examples.
Pyramus and Thisbe live in neighbouring houses. Their parents have a long-standing quarrel with each other. This dispute does not prevent Pyramus and Thisbe from falling madly in love with each other. Their only way to communicate is through a small crack in the wall adjoining their houses, through which they profess their love for each other.
As with most tragic love stories, this one does not end well. There are not many depictions of Pyramus and Thisbe showing how they whispered to each other through the wall. Most focus on how they both take their own lives.
Dido and Aeneas
In the Aeneid, the Ancient Greek epic written by Virgil in the 1st century BCE, we find yet another love story ending in tragedy.
It follows the story of Aeneas, a Trojan hero, who - by the fates of the god - becomes enamoured with Dido, the Queen of Carthage. A storm has just wrecked Aeneas' fleet. He takes shelter in the Temple of Juno where and he meets Dido and wins her favour. Aeneas spends time with Dido and recounts his past travels and adventures to her, leading them to fall in love.
This is where the story ideally would have ended, but that would not have taken the jealousy of King Iarbas into account, whose love for Dido stayed unrequited.
Iarbas prays to his father, the god Jupiter, cursing Dido for not answering his love but falling head over heels for Aeneas instead. Jupiter answers Iarbas' prayer by ordering Mercury to send Aeneas to conquer the lands of Italy.
Dutiful as ever, Aeneas begrudgingly follows Mercury's guidance and leaves in the night by ship. Some accounts say he was too heartbroken to actually tell Dido he had to leave. Others show his tearful goodbyes from Dido.
Dido's insurmountable sadness leads her to build a funeral pyre and stabbing herself to death with a sword given to her by Aeneas.
Hero and Leander
In the Greek myth of Hero and Leander, they are not separated by differences in social status or pre-existing marriages, but simply by physical distance. Hero, a priestess of Aphrodite, lives in Sestos at one side of the Hellespont. Leander lives in Abydos, at the other side of the strait of water.
Madly in love with each other but not able to meet, Leander's desire to see Hero was so strong that he would swim across the Hellespont every night. Hero would shine a light in the darkness from atop her tower to guide Leander across the waters.
On a blustery winter night, the wind blew out Hero's light, and Leander was tossed by the waves, disoriented. Leander drowned in the Hellespont. Upon seeing his body, Hero threw herself off of her tower to join Leander in the sweet embrace of death.
Tristan and Isolde
The final star-crossed couple we're highlighting are Tristan and Isolde.
The story of Tristan and Isolde has many different versions in different languages and time periods. The original legend of Tristan and Isolde (their names have a lot of different spellings: Tristram, Iseult amongst others) has both of them surviving, marrying, and living a happy life together. So in some versions, their story ends in a happy ending instead of in mutual suicide, as in others.
The Arthurian legends of Lancelot and Guinevere were most likely influenced by Tristan and Isolde.
In his opera of the same name, Richard Wagner casts Tristan and Isolde back into tragedy. Depictions of Tristan and Isolde after 1865 often reference Wagner's version or at least show Wagnerian influences.
In Wagner's retelling of Tristan and Isolde, Tristan is transporting Isolde to Cornwall where she has been promised in marriage to king Marke. Isolde despises Tristan, for he is the murderer of her former fiancée, Morold. Her hate for Tristan runs so deep that she orders her handmaid to create a poisoned drink that she can give to Tristan.
Accepting that he should die because of what he did to Morold, Tristan drinks the poison. Isolde, not seeing any future in her forced marriage with the king of Cornwall, drinks the other half of the poisoned drink. It is then that they discover that the handmaiden had given them not poison, but a love potion.
Isolde is married to king Marke as planned, but the love potion drives Tristan and Isolde to meet in secret.
When the king is hunting at nightfall, Isolde calls Tristan to the castle where they declare their love for each other. Their passions continue throughout the night, both of them ignoring the cries of the handmaiden warning them of daybreak. King Marke catches Tristan and Isolde, entwined in embrace.
In medieval versions of Tristan and Isolde, at this point both are sentenced to death - but the lovers manage to escape together. They are once again discovered hiding in the forest together by the king, and succeed in making peace with him. Tristan and Isolde travel to Brittany, where they marry and live happily ever after.
Wagner's version is much more tragic. After a swordfight with the king's entourage, Tristan escapes alone to Brittany, waiting for his lover to arrive. Just as Isolde's ship arrives in the harbour, Tristan succumbs to the wounds he sustained in the swordfight. Isolde collapses next to her true love and dies.
