The fathers are but shadowy figures in the Ovidian tale of Pyramus and Thisbe. The two young Babylonian neighbours are similarly beautiful and in love but, for no apparent reason, their parents reject their union, which triggers a series of actions resulting in their final double death. Barely mentioned in the Latin narrative, they remain anonymous and are always referred to with the plural form. Their contours are blurred, they seem exchangeable, almost dispensable. From the outset, there is a striking discrepancy between their minor textual presence and their major role in the story. Looking further, their presence proves to be indirectly refracted by topographical elements which epitomize the law of the father. Various forms of art foreground them as secondary characters, ranging from antagonist figures fuelled with dramatic irony to tragic victims increasing the pathos of the tale. Nonetheless, a sense of incompleteness pervades: their embodiment threatens to deflate the central pair of lovers and consequently jeopardizes the very essence of the myth of thwarted love. Their degree of presence or absence is highly referential, reflecting the socio-historical evolution of the father figure. They tend to disappear in modern adaptations, thereby mirroring the decline of the patriarchalism. Yet, fully dismissed, the myth seems deprived of its substance. Their deficiency turns out to be crucial to the myth, which requires a part of shadow below the surface of the text/canvas.