Dido

Did You Know?

• The name Dido may derive from a Semitic root meaning 'Beloved' or from a word meaning 'the wanderer'.
• In Ovid's Fasti, Dido's sister Anna becomes the Roman goddess Anna Perenna after fleeing to Latium.
• Silius Italicus's poem Punica has Hannibal swear an oath to 'Elissa, by your shade' before opposing Rome.

Early accounts

The earliest known references to Dido come from the lost writings of the Sicilian historian Timaeus of Tauromenium, who dated the founding of Carthage to 814 BC. Appian, in his Punic Wars, states that Carthage was founded by Zorus and Carchedon, but Zorus appears to be a transliteration of Tyre, and Carchedon is the Greek name for Carthage. Timaeus named Carchedon's wife as Elissa, sister of King Pygmalion of Tyre. The only surviving full account before Virgil is that of Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus, preserved in an epitome by Junianus Justinus. According to Justin, the king of Tyre made his daughter Dido and son Pygmalion joint heirs, but after the king's death the people accepted only Pygmalion as ruler. Dido married her uncle Acerbas, a priest of Heracles, who was rumored to have hidden a large store of gold. Pygmalion had Acerbas murdered to claim the gold. Dido pretended to move into Pygmalion's home, filling bags with sand and casting them into the sea as a pretended offering to her husband. She then persuaded the attendants to flee with her, joined by sympathetic senators. The group first went to Cyprus, where Dido ordered the seizure of eighty women from the shore to provide wives for her men.

Virgil's Aeneid

In Virgil's Aeneid, Dido's father is named Belus. The narrative follows the earlier account of Trogus: Dido married Sychaeus, a wealthy priest of Hercules, who was murdered by her brother Pygmalion for his hidden wealth. Sychaeus appeared to Dido in a dream, revealing the murder and the location of the treasure, and urged her to flee. She left Tyre with those who feared Pygmalion. The Trojan prince Aeneas, after years of wandering, landed at Carthage. Dido welcomed him warmly. Venus, Aeneas's mother, fearing Juno's influence over Carthage, sent Cupid disguised as Aeneas's son Ascanius. Dido embraced the disguised Cupid, who filled her with love for Aeneas. Despite her vow never to remarry, she and Aeneas consummated their relationship in a cave, though Aeneas later denied they were married. Aeneas prepared to leave. Dido confronted him, but he refused to stay, citing his divine fate.

Historicity and dating

The oxhide story explaining the hill's name is likely Greek in origin, as Byrsa means 'oxhide' in Greek, not Punic. The Punic name for the hill probably derived from the Semitic brt, meaning 'fortified place'. Michael Grant suggested that Dido-Elissa was originally a goddess, later converted into a mortal queen by a Greek writer in the late fifth century BC. Others consider Dido historical. It is unknown who first combined the story of Dido with the tradition linking Aeneas to Rome. A fragment of an epic by Gnaeus Naevius may contain a conversation between Aeneas and Dido. Servius cited Varro for a version in which Dido's sister Anna killed herself for love of Aeneas. Evidence for Dido's historicity is tied to her family: her brother Pygmalion and grandfather Balazeros appear in Menander of Ephesus's list of Tyrian kings, preserved in Josephus's Against Apion. Josephus quotes Menander stating that in the seventh year of Pygmalion's reign, his sister fled and built Carthage. The Nora Stone, found on Sardinia and dated to the 9th century BC, has been interpreted by Frank Moore Cross as naming Pygmalion as king, providing inscriptional evidence for a 9th-century BC Tyrian king of that name.

Continuing tradition

Early Italian works referencing Dido include Proverbia super natura feminarum and L’Intelligenza, where she stabs herself upon seeing Aeneas's departing sails. In Dante's Divine Comedy, Dido appears unnamed in the second circle of Hell among the lustful, condemned to an eternal storm. Petrarch and Boccaccio, influenced by St. Jerome, portrayed Dido as a faithful wife to Sychaeus. Petrarch included her in his Trionfi and his epic Africa. Boccaccio wrote about her in On Famous Women and several other works. In Renaissance Italy, three tragedies focused on Dido: Alessandro Pazzi de' Medici's Dido in Cartagine, Giambattista Giraldi Cinthio's Didone, and Lodovico Dolce's Didone. In France, Christine de Pizan narrated her story in Le Livre de la cité des dames. Hélisenne de Crenne evoked Dido in her novel Les Angoisses douleurs. Étienne Jodelle wrote Didon se sacrifiant, and Alexandre Hardy later used the same title. Christopher Marlowe's Renaissance drama Dido, Queen of Carthage was also inspired by her legend.