In Greek and Roman sources Dido or Elissa appears as the founder and first Queen of Carthage in Tunisia. She is best known from the account given by the Roman poet Virgil in his Aeneid. Dido - Early accounts. The person of Elissa can be traced back at least to lost writings of the historian Timaeus of Tauromenium in Sicily (c. 356–260 BC) as referred to and used by later sources. Timaeus dated the foundation of Carthage to 814 BC (or 813 Including:

• Dido - Early accounts
• Dido - Virgil's Aeneid
• Dido - Later Roman tradition
• Dido - Continuing tradition
• Dido - An alternative viewpoint
• Dido - Selected bibliography

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Letter 8 of Ovid's Heroides is a 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 Barcids, the family to which Hannibal belonged, claimed descent from a younger brother of Dido according to Silius Italicus in his Punica (1.71–7). The Augustan History ("Tyrrani Triginta" 27, 30) claims that Zenobia queen of Palmyra in the late 3rd century AD was ...

See also:

Dido, Dido - Early accounts, Dido - Virgil's Aeneid, Dido - Later Roman tradition, Dido - Continuing tradition, Dido - An alternative viewpoint, Dido - Selected bibliography

Read more here: » Dido: Encyclopedia II - Dido - Later Roman tradition

The person of Elissa can be traced back at least to lost writings of the historian Timaeus of Tauromenium in Sicily (c. 356–260 BC) as referred to and used by later sources. Timaeus dated the foundation of Carthage to 814 BC (or 813 BC) but he also placed the founding of Rome in the same year which suggests legend had been at work. Other historians gave other dates, both for the foundation of Carthage and the foundation of Rome. Appian in the beginning of his Punic ...

See also:

Dido, Dido - Early accounts, Dido - Virgil's Aeneid, Dido - Later Roman tradition, Dido - Continuing tradition, Dido - An alternative viewpoint, Dido - Selected bibliography

Read more here: » Dido: Encyclopedia II - Dido - Early accounts

An alternative viewpoint, based on Gerhard Herm’s interpretation (Die Phönizier), supported by selected classic sources (Virgil, Ovid, Silius Italicus), but rejecting much of Timaeus’ account, conducts to a slightly different historiographical outline (main changes on italic, followed by references): Dido, or Elisha/Elissa, was a Phoenician Queen, founder of Carthage. First-born from King of Tyre, her succession was struggled from the minor brother, Pumayyaton/Pygmalion, who murdered her husband and im ...

See also:

Dido, Dido - Early accounts, Dido - Virgil's Aeneid, Dido - Later Roman tradition, Dido - Continuing tradition, Dido - An alternative viewpoint, Dido - Selected bibliography

Read more here: » Dido: Encyclopedia II - Dido - An alternative viewpoint

Virgil's back-references in his Aeneid generally agree with what Justin recorded. Virgil names Dido's father as Belus, this Belus sometimes being called Belus II by later commentators to distinguish him from Belus son of Poseidon and Libya in earlier Greek mythology. If the story of Elissa/Dido has a factual basis and is synchronized properly with history then this Belus stands for Mattan I who was father of the historical Pygmalion. Virgil (1.746f) adds that the marriage between Dido/Elissa and Sychaeus, as Virgil calls Dido's ...

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Dido, Dido - Early accounts, Dido - Virgil's Aeneid, Dido - Later Roman tradition, Dido - Continuing tradition, Dido - An alternative viewpoint, Dido - Selected bibliography

Read more here: » Dido: Encyclopedia II - Dido - Virgil's Aeneid

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 eponymous 1689 opera by Henry Purcell. 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 sim ...

See also:

Dido, Dido - Early accounts, Dido - Virgil's Aeneid, Dido - Later Roman tradition, Dido - Continuing tradition, Dido - An alternative viewpoint, Dido - Selected bibliography

Read more here: » Dido: Encyclopedia II - Dido - Continuing tradition