Dido
Sign in to saveIn Greek and Roman mythology, Dido ( ; ; ), also known as Elissa ( ; ), was the legendary founder and first queen of the Phoenician city-state of Carthage. In most accounts, she was originally the joint ruler of Tyre who fled tyranny to found her own city in northwest Africa, now modern-day Tunisia. As she is only known from ancient Greek and Roman sources, all of which were written well after Carthage's founding, her historicity remains uncertain.
AI overview
Dido, also known as Elissa, was a legendary figure from ancient mythology who founded the city of Carthage in what is now Tunisia and served as its first queen. Although ancient Greek and Roman writers portrayed her as a Phoenician ruler from Tyre who fled to establish her own city, historians cannot confirm whether she was a real historical person since all surviving accounts were written long after Carthage's founding.
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Key facts
- Deity.type
- Roman
- Deity.god_of
- Queen of Carthage
- Deity.image
- Affresco romano - Enea e di (cropped).jpg
- Deity.caption
- Dido and Aeneas, from a Roman fresco, Pompeian Third Style (10 BC – 45 AD), Pompeii, Italy.
- Deity.father
- Belus or Mattan I
- Deity.siblings
- Anna
- Deity.abode
- Tyre, Carthage
- Deity.consorts
- Acerbas, Aeneas
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
17 sectionsContents
- Name
- Early accounts
- Trogus and Justin
- Virgil's ''Aeneid''
- Dido flees Tyre
- Aeneas arrives at Carthage
- Dido's suicide
- After death
- Later Roman tradition
- Ovid
- Silius Italicus
- Historicity and dating
- Continuing tradition
- Notes
- Selected bibliography
- Primary sources
- External links
In Greek and Roman mythology, Dido ( ; ; ), also known as Elissa ( ; ), was the legendary founder and first queen of the Phoenician city-state of Carthage. In most accounts, she was originally the joint ruler of Tyre who fled tyranny to found her own city in northwest Africa, now modern-day Tunisia. As she is only known from ancient Greek and Roman sources, all of which were written well after Carthage's founding, her historicity remains uncertain.
Details about Dido's character, life, and role in the founding of Carthage are best known from Virgil's epic poem, the Aeneid, published around 19 BC. The poem tells the legendary story of the Trojan hero Aeneas. In the poem, Dido is described as a clever and enterprising woman who founded Carthage after fleeing her tyrannical brother. The city prospers under her leadership until Aeneas arrives and the pair fall in love through Juno and Venus' divine intervention. When Aeneas eventually has to leave Carthage, the love-sick Dido commits suicide upon a pyre.
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Connections
Categories
9th-century BC queens regnantAfrica in Roman mythologyAncient African womenAncient Greeks in AfricaCarthaginian mythologyCarthaginian womenCharacters in Book VI of the AeneidCultural depictions of DidoDeified womenLegendary Greek peopleLegendary monarchsMonarchs of CarthageMythological city founders