What ancient work narrates the story of Pyramus and Thisbe?

The story of Pyramus and Thisbe is narrated in Ovid's "Metamorphoses," which is a narrative poem that includes various myths and transformation stories from classical mythology. This particular tale is a tragic love story that illustrates the themes of forbidden love and misunderstandings leading to calamity. In the myth, Pyramus and Thisbe are star-crossed lovers from feuding families in Babylon who communicate through a crack in the wall that separates their homes. Their tragic end—resulting from a series of miscommunications—has had a lasting impact on Western literature, influencing later works such as Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet."

Other works mentioned in the options, such as Virgil's "Aeneid," focus more on the founding of Rome and epic tales of heroism, while Homer's "Iliad" deals primarily with events from the Trojan War. Silius Italicus' "Punica" is also an epic that recounts the Punic Wars. These texts do not include the specific narrative of Pyramus and Thisbe, reinforcing why Ovid's "Metamorphoses" is the correct answer for this question.