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| Birth Name(s) : Dido |
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Full Dido Biography
In Greek and Roman sources Dido appears as the founder and first Queen of Carthage (in modern-day Tunisia). She is best known from the account given by the Roman poet Virgil in his Aeneid.
The only surviving full account before Virgil's treatment is that of Virgil's contemporary Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus in his Philippic histories as rendered in a digest or epitome made by Junianus Justinus in the 3rd century.
But when the new city of Carthage had been established and become prosperous, Iarbas, a native king of the Maxitani or Mauritani (manuscripts differ), demanded Elissa for his wife or he would make war on Carthage. Elissa's envoys, fearing Iarbas, told Elissa only that Iarbas' terms for peace were that someone from Carthage must dwell permanently with him to teach Phoenician ways and they added that of course no Carthaginian would agree to dwell with such savages. Elissa condemned any who would feel that way when they should indeed give their lives for the city if necessary. Elissa's envoys then explained that Iarbas had specifically requested Elissa as wife. Elissa was trapped by her words. But Elissa preferred to stay faithful to her first husband and after creating a ceremonial funeral pyre and sacrificing many victims to his spirit in pretense that this was a final honoring of her first husband in preparation for marriage to Iarbas, Elissa ascended the pyre, announced that she would go to her husband as they desired, and then slew herself with her sword. After this self-sacrifice Elissa was deified and was worshipped as long as Carthage endured. In this account, the foundation of Carthage occurred 72 years before the foundation of Rome.
A fragment of an epic poem by Gnaeus Naevius who died at Utica in 201 BC includes a passage which might or might not be part of a conversation between Aeneas and Dido. Servius in his commentary (4.682; 5.4) cites Varro (1st century BC ) for a version in which Dido's sister Anna killed herself for love of Aeneas.Dido, attributed to Christophe Cochet, formerly at Marly (Louvre)
(1.657f) Dido and Aeneas fall in love by the management of Juno and Venus, acting in concert though for different reasons. (4.198f) When the rumour of the love affair comes to King Iarbas the Gaetulian, "a son of Jupiter Ammon by a raped Garamantian nymph", Iarbas prays to his father, blaming Dido who has scorned marriage with him yet now takes Aeneas into the country as her lord. (4.222f) Jupiter dispatches Mercury to send Aeneas on his way and the pious Aeneas sadly obeys. Mercury tells Aeneas of all the promising Italian lands and orders Aeneas to get his fleet ready.
(6.450f) During his journey in the underworld Aeneas meets Dido and tries to excuse himself, but Dido does not deign to look at him. Instead she turns away from Aeneas to a grove where her former husband Sychaeus waits. T. S. Eliot once called this "the most civilized moment in Western literature."
Letter 7 of Ovid's Heroides is a feigned letter from Dido to Aeneas written just before she ascends the pyre. The situation is as in Virgil's Aeneid except that Ovid's Dido is pregnant by Aeneas. In Ovid's Fasti (3.545f) Ovid introduced a kind of sequel involving Aeneas and Dido's sister Anna. See Anna Perenna.
The Augustan History ("Tyrrani Triginta" 27, 30) claims that Zenobia queen of Palmyra in the late 3rd century AD was descended from Cleopatra, Dido and Semiramis.
In the Divine Comedy Dante sees the shade of Dido in the second circle of Hell, where she is condemned (on account of her consuming lust) to be blasted for eternity in a fierce whirlwind.
The story of Dido and Aeneas remained popular throughout the post-Renaissance era, and was the basis for the opera Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell and the drama Dido, Queen of Carthage by Christopher Marlowe. Even today, Dido appears in Sid Meier's strategy game Civilization II, as the female leader of the Carthaginian tribe.
Remembrance of the story of the bull's hide and the foundation of Carthage is preserved in mathematics in connection with the Isoperimetric problem which is sometimes called Dido's Problem (and similarly the Isoperimetric theorem is sometimes called Dido's Theorem). It is sometimes stated in such discussion that Dido caused her thong to be placed as a half circle touching the sea coast at each end (which would add greatly to the perimeter) but the sources mention the thong only and say nothing about the sea.
An alternative viewpoint, based on Gerhard Herm’s interpretation (Die Phönizier 1974), supported by selected classic sources (Virgil, Ovid, Silius Italicus), but rejecting much of Timaeus’ account, leads to a slightly different historiographical outline (main changes in italic, followed by references):
Dido, or Elisha/Elissa, was a Phoenician Queen, founder of Carthage. First-born from King of Tyre, her succession was disputed by her younger brother, Pumayyaton/Pygmalion, who murdered her husband and imposed his rule. At this point she left Tyre with a large following, starting a long voyage; main stages were Cyprus and, possibly, Malta . |
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