Thisbe was loved by Pyramus, as both Ovid and Shakespeare tell and retell. The names of both lovers may well be of Asiatic origin, with an assimilation to Greek. Perhaps Thisbe's name approximates to that of Thespis, so that she is 'divine' or 'prophetic'. (Oddly enough, there was a town Thisbe in Boeotia, not too far from Thespia, both places being at the foot of Mount Helicon.) It sounds the sort of classical and romantic name that ought to have become a vogue modern first name, but somehow it has never caught on.
