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Dido

In Greek mythology, Dido ("manly woman", also named Elissa) was the founder and first Queen of Carthage. Her father was Belus. After Aeneas fled Troy, he stopped in Carthage and Dido fell in love with him. When he left to go found Rome, she killed herself. When Aeneas went to Hades, he talked to her ghost and she refused to forgive him. Also as a ghost, Dido told her sister, Anna Perenna, that Aeneas' wife, Lavinia, was a jealous person.

Another story about the founding of Carthage, which may contain more than a core of truth, is that Elissa was the sister of Pygmalion, the king of Tyre. Elissa was married to her uncle Acherbas, high priest of Melkart, and thus the second most important man in Tyre. When their father, Mattan I, died, he wanted his children to be kings together. The people of Tyre objected, choosing Pygmalion, only 11 years old at the time. Much of the aristocracy preferred Acherbas and Elissa, however.

Pygmalion seized the power, and had Acherbas assassinated, taking hold of his riches. Elissa, together with a number of aristocrats who had supported Acherbas, fled to Cyprus, and from there on to the later site of Carthage, where she planned to build a colony. They landed there in 814 (or 813) BC. The local Libyans received them friendly, and when they asked land to build a city offered them as much land as could be covered by an oxhide. Elissa spread out the oxhide in fine strips, and so had enough to use it to surround a hill, Byrsa, that would become the basis of their new city Qarthadasht ("new city").

The native king demanded to marry Elissa, but she preferred to stay faithful to her husband, and committed suicide by throwing herself in the fire. After this self-sacrifice she was deified.

Some of this story is in all probability mythological (for example, the oxhide story comes from the name of the hill - Byrsa means "oxhide" in Greek, but the name itself is probably derived from the Semitic brt, "fortified place". However, there are also elements in the story that are clearly of Phoenician, and not Greek or Roman, origin.

Dido is also the stage name of the singer Dido Armstrong.

HMS Dido was a British light cruiser, launched in 1939.

Historiographical outline:

Dido, or Elissa. Phoenician Queen, founder of Carthage (n. 840-760 B.C.).

First-born of the King of Tyre, her succession was struggled from her brother, who murdered her husband and imposed his tyranny. Probably to avoid a civil war, she left Tyre with a large following, starting a long voyage; main stages were Cyprus and Malta. Landed on Libyan coasts, about 814 B.C., she chose a place where to found a new capital city for Phoenician people: Carthage. She pacifically obtained the land by an ingenious agreement with the local Lord (today known as the Theorem of Dido). During her widowhood, she was insistently demanded by local kings; however she married again with a loyal Tyrian follower, probably named Barce. After a long and prosperous reign, she favored the passage to a Repubblic form, and she was deified by her people with the name of Tanit and like impersonification of Great Goddess Astarte (the Roman Juno). The maximum Latin writer, Virgil, introduced her figure in western culture, through his double writing system (the first superficial writing was intended for national audience and Augustus need, while the second one, deeper and hidden, reflects Authors point of view and his historical reconstruction). The cult of Tanit survived to Carthage destruction and it was introduced in Rome itself by Emperor Septimius Severus. It extinguished definitively with barbaric invasions. Hannibal Barca was probably a direct descendant of D., and also Queen Zenobia of Palmyra, 1.000 years later, declared herself descendant and political heir of D..

D. was traditionally considered the enemy number one of Rome, even if Rome didnt exist in her times. In Italy, during fascist Regime, her figure was demonized, since she represented together at least three unpleasant qualities: feminine virtue, Semite ethnic, and African civilization. Her name and her memory were very feared. As innocuous exemplification, we can remember that when Mussolinis Regime named the streets of new quartiers of Rome with the characters of Virgils Aeneid, the name of D. was the only lacking one. As tragic compensation (and in a sadly curious way), British Royal Navy employed Dido-class cruisers against Italian objectives during Second World War. Devastating results justified Mussolinis dreads.

Main classic sources (according to Maleuvre/Schmitz double writing doctrine, where required):

Publius Vergilius Maro, Aeneis;
Publius Ovidius Naso, Epistulae heroidum, Metamorphoseon libri, Fasti;
Silius Italicus, Punica;
Trebellius Pollio (et alii), Historia Augusta.

Selected bibliography:

H. Akbar Khan, Doctissima Dido: Etymology, Hospitality and the Construction of a Civilized Identity, 2002;
E.B. Atwood, Two Alterations of Virgil in Chaucers Dido, 1938;
R.S. Conway, The Place of Dido in History, 1920;
F. Della Corte, La Iuno-Astarte virgiliana, 1983;
G. De Sanctis, Storia dei Romani, 1916;
M. Fantar, Carthage, la prestigieuse cité dElissa, 1970;
L. Foucher, Les Phéniciens à Carthage ou la geste dElissa, 1978;
M. Gras/P. Rouillard/J. Teixidor, Lunivers phénicien, 1995;
H.D. Gray, Did Shakespeare write a tragedy of Dido?, 1920;
G. Herm, Die Phönizier, 1974;
R.C. Ketterer, The perils of Dido: sorcery and melodrama in Vergils Aeneid IV and Purcells Dido and Aeneas, 1992;
R.H. Klausen, Aeneas und die Penaten, 1839;
G. Kowalski, De Didone graeca et latina, 1929;
F.N. Lees, Dido Queen of Carthage and The Tempest, 1964;
J.-Y. Maleuvre, Contre-Enquête sur la mort de Didon, 2003;
J.-Y. Maleuvre, La mort de Virgile daprès Horace et Ovide, 1993;
L. Mangiacapre, Didone non è morta, 1990;
P.E. McLane, The Death of a Queen: Spencers Dido as Elizabeth, 1954;
O. Meltzer, Geschichte der Karthager, 1879;
A. Michel, Virgile et la politique impériale: un courtisan ou un philosophe?, 1971;
S. Moscati, Chi furono i Fenici. Identità storica e culturale di un popolo protagonista dellantico mondo mediterraneo, 1992;
R. Neuse, Book VI as Conclusion to The Faerie Queene, 1968;
A. Parry, The Two Voices of Virgils Aeneid, 1963;
G.K. Paster, Montaigne, Dido and The Tempest: How Came That Widow In?, 1984;
B. Schmitz, Ovide, In Ibin: un oiseau impérial, 2004;
E. Stampini, Alcune osservazioni sulla leggenda di Enea e Didone nella letteratura romana, 1893.

Web resources:

http://www.queendido.org
http://www.phoenicia.org
http://www.virgilmurder.org

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Dido".