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{{Short description|Legendary founder and first queen of Carthage}}
{{about|the legendary figure|other uses|Dido (singer)|and|Dido (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}

{{Infobox deity
| type = Roman
| god_of = Queen of [[Carthage]]
| image = Affresco romano - Enea e di (cropped).jpg
| caption = Dido and [[Aeneas]], from a Roman fresco, [[Pompeian Styles|Pompeian Third Style]] (10 BC{{snd}}45 AD), [[Pompeii]], Italy
| father = [[Belus (Tyre)|Belus]] or [[Mattan I]]
| siblings = [[Anna Perenna|Anna]]
| abode = [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]], [[Carthage]]
| consorts = [[Acerbas]], [[Aeneas]]
| birth_place = [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]] (modern-day [[Lebanon]])
| death_place = Carthage (modern-day [[Tunisia]])
}}

In [[Greek mythology|Greek]] and [[Roman mythology|Roman]] mythology, '''Dido''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|d|aɪ|d|oʊ}} {{respell|DY|doh}}; {{IPA|la-x-classic|ˈdiːdoː|lang}}; {{Langx|grc|Διδώ}} {{IPA|grc|diːdɔ̌ː|}}), also known as '''Elissa''' ({{IPAc-en|ɪ|ˈ|l|ɪ|s|ə}} {{respell|il|ISS|ə}}; {{langx|grc|Ἔλισσα|label=Greek}}),<ref>{{Cite web|title=Elissa – Dido Legend of Carthage|url=http://www.phoenician.org/elissa_dido_legend.htm|website=www.phoenician.org|access-date=2017-04-14}}</ref> was the legendary founder and first queen of the [[Phoenicia]]n city-state of [[Ancient Carthage|Carthage]]. 
In most accounts, she was originally the joint ruler of [[Tyre, Lebanon|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. {{SpecialChars|fix=Help:Special characters#Phoenician}}

Details about Dido's character, life, and role in the founding of Carthage are best known from [[Virgil]]'s [[Epic poetry|epic]] poem, the ''[[Aeneid]],'' published around 19&nbsp;BC. The poem tells the legendary story of the [[Trojan War|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 (mythology)|Juno]] and [[Venus (mythology)|Venus']] divine intervention. When Aeneas eventually has to leave Carthage, the love-sick Dido commits suicide upon a [[pyre]].

Dido has been an enduring figure in Western culture, literature, and art from the early [[Renaissance]] into the 21st century.

==Name==
Many names in the legend of Dido are of [[Punic language|Punic]] origin, which suggests that the first Greek authors who mention this story have taken up Phoenician accounts. One suggestion is that ''Dido'' is an epithet from the same [[Semitic root]] as ''[[David]]'', which means "Beloved".<ref>Barton, ''Semitic and Hamitic Origins'' (1934) at 305.</ref> Others state Didô means "the wanderer".<ref name="auto">{{Harvnb|Noël|2014|p=5}}</ref><ref>[[María Eugenia Aubet]], ''Tiro and the Phoenician colonies of the West'', 2nd edition, Bellaterra, 1994, p. 217</ref>

According to Marie-Pierre Noël, "Elishat/Elisha" is a name repeatedly attested on [[Punic language|Punic]] votives. It is composed of:
* the Punic reflex of [[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Semitic/ʾil-|*ʾil-]] "god", which can mean the remote Phoenician creator god [[El (deity)|El]], or it can be [[names of God in Judaism#El|a name for God in Judaism]], 
and
* "‐issa", which could be either "[[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Semitic/ʾiš-|ʾiš]]" ([[wikt:𐤀𐤎|𐤀𐤎]]), meaning "fire", or another word for "woman".<ref>{{Harvnb|Noël|2014|p=3}}</ref> 
Other works state that it is the feminine form of El.<ref>Smith, ''Carthage and the Carthaginians'' (1878, 1902) at 13.</ref> In Greek it appears as ''Theiossô'', which translates Élissa: ''el'' becoming ''theos''.<ref name="auto"/>

==Early accounts==
[[File:Henry Fuseli - Dido - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''Dido'', 1781 oil painting by [[Henry Fuseli]]]]

The oldest references to Dido's character can be traced to the [[lost writings]] of [[Sicily|Sicilian]] historian [[Timaeus (historian)|Timaeus]] of [[Taormina|Tauromenium]] (c.&nbsp;356–260 BC). In his ''Histories'', Timaeus claims that Dido founded Carthage in 814&nbsp;BC, around the same time as the founding of [[Rome]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Haegemans |first=Karen |date=2000 |title=Elissa, the First Queen of Carthage, Through Timaeus' Eyes |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44079812 |journal=Ancient Society |volume=30 |pages=277–291 |doi=10.2143/AS.30.0.565564 |issn=0066-1619 |jstor=44079812 |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Odgers |first=Merle M. |date=1925 |title=Some Appearances of the Dido Story |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4388672 |journal=The Classical Weekly |volume=18 |issue=19 |pages=145–148 |doi=10.2307/4388672 |issn=1940-641X |jstor=4388672 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

[[Appian]], in the beginning of his ''Punic Wars'', claims that Carthage was founded by Zorus and Carchedon. However, ''Zorus'' looks like an alternative transliteration of the city name ''Tyre,'' while ''Carchedon'' is just the Greek form of ''Carthage''. Timaeus named Carchedon's wife as Elissa, the sister of King [[Pygmalion of Tyre]]. Archaeological evidence of settlement on the site of Carthage before the last quarter of the 8th century BC has yet to be found. 
That the city is named {{script|Phnx|𐤒𐤓𐤕 𐤇𐤃𐤔𐤕}} (''Qart-hadasht'', or "New City") at least indicates it was a colony.

=== Trogus and Justin ===
The only surviving full account of Dido's story before [[Virgil]]'s treatment is that of Virgil's contemporary, [[Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus]], in his ''Philippic Histories'', which was reworked into an [[epitome]] by [[Junianus Justinus]] (Justin) in the 3rd century AD. 

Justin, quoting or paraphrasing Trogus, writes that the king of [[Tyre (Lebanon)|Tyre]] made his beautiful daughter Dido (Elissa) and son Pygmalion his joint heirs. However, upon the king's death, the people took Pygmalion alone as their ruler, even though he was still a child. Dido married her uncle [[Acerbas]], who, as priest of [[Heracles]] ([[Melqart]]), was second in power to the king. There were rumors that Acerbas had secretly buried a large store of gold, and Pygmalion had Acerbas murdered in hopes of claiming it for himself. Dido was enraged, and eventually planned to trick her brother and flee Tyre.<ref name=":1">[[Junianus Justinus]], ''Epitome of Pompeius Trogus''' "''Philippic Histories"'', [https://www.attalus.org/translate/justin2.html#18.4 18.4]</ref>{{rp|Lines 1-9}} 

Dido pretended to want to move into Pygmalion's home; her brother agreed, as he believed Dido would bring Acerbas' stores of gold with her when she moved. He sent a number of attendants to help her. She filled bags with sand, and, pretending they were gold, had the attendants cast them into the sea, pretending that they were an offering to her late husband's [[Ghost|shade]]. Dido then persuaded the attendants to join her in flight to another land rather than face Pygmalion's anger when he discovered what had supposedly become of Acerbas' wealth. Some sympathetic senators also joined her.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|Lines 10-16}}

{{multiple image
| align             = right
| image1            = Monnaie - 1-5 de shekel, or, Carthage, Zeugitane - btv1b11318859x (1 of 2).jpg
| width1            = 
| alt1              = 
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| image2            = Monnaie - 1-5 de shekel, or, Carthage, Zeugitane - btv1b11318859x (2 of 2).jpg
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| footer            = A horse's head is a frequent motif on [[Carthaginian coinage]], sometimes with a female profile on the [[obverse]] usually identified as the goddess [[Tanit]], whose iconography may have influenced Virgil's imagery of Juno and Dido<ref>{{cite book|title=Virgil, Aeneid 4: Text, Translation, Commentary|first1=Lee M.|last1=Fratantuono|first2=R. Alden |last2=Smith |date=2022|series=Mnemosyne Supplements. Monographs on Greek and Latin Language and Literature |publisher=Brill|pages=162, 214, 561 |isbn=9789004521445}}</ref> ([[shekel]], c. 153–146 BC[https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb41748342b])
}}

The group first arrived at [[Cyprus]]. There, Dido ordered her party to seize eighty women working as prostitutes on the shore, so that her men would have wives and eventually be able to populate her future city.<ref name=":2">[[Junianus Justinus]], ''Epitome of Pompeius Trogus''' "''Philippic Histories"'', [https://www.attalus.org/translate/justin2.html#18.5 18.5]</ref>{{rp|Lines 1-6}}

Eventually Dido and her followers arrived on the coast of [[North Africa]]. There, she bargained with the locals for a small piece of land to act as a refuge until she could continue her journeying: only as much land as could be encompassed by an [[Ox|oxhide]]. They agreed. Dido then cut the oxhide into fine strips so that she had enough to encircle an entire nearby hill, which was afterwards named ''[[Byrsa]]'' ("hide").<ref name=":2" />{{rp|Lines 7-10}}

Dido and her party established a settlement on the hill. Locals began to join the group, and both they and envoys from the nearby [[Phoenicia]]n city of [[Utica, Tunisia|Utica]] urged the building of a city. While digging the foundation, an ox's head was found, indicating that the city that would be wealthy but subjected to the rule of others if built at that site. In response to this portent, another area of the hill was dug instead, where a horse's head was found, indicating that the city would be powerful and warlike. Carthage was thus founded, and the center of the city was the [[citadel]] on Byrsa.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Justin |title=Epitome of Pompeius Trogus |last2=Yardley |first2=John C. |last3=Hoyos |first3=B. Dexter |date=2024 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-99760-8 |series=Loeb classical library |location=Cambridge, Mass. London}}</ref><ref name=":2" />{{rp|Lines 11-18}}

After some time, Carthage grew to be powerful and prosperous. However, [[Iarbas]], king of the Maxitani (or Mauritani), demanded Dido's hand in marriage so that they could combine their kingdoms; if she denied him, he would launch war against Carthage.<ref>{{cite book |last=de Gruyter |first=Walter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zxKS7-ABAWMC&q=larbas+son+of+Jupiter&pg=PA879 |title=Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt: Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der Neueren Forschung |date=February 1981 |publisher=De Gruyter |isbn=9783110082883}}</ref> However, she preferred to stay faithful to her first husband. She created a ceremonial funeral [[pyre]] and sacrificed many victims under the pretense that she was honoring and appeasing her husband's spirit before marrying Iarbas. However, Dido instead ascended the pyre, announcing that "she would go to her husband as they had desired her," and killed herself with a sword. After her suicide, Dido was deified and worshipped as a goddess as long as Carthage endured. In this account, the founding of Carthage occurred 72 years before the foundation of Rome.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Dido {{!}} Classical mythology |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dido |access-date=2017-08-04 |work=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref><ref>[[Junianus Justinus]], ''Epitome of Pompeius Trogus''' "''Philippic Histories"'', [https://www.attalus.org/translate/justin2.html#18.6 18.6]</ref>

==Virgil's ''Aeneid''==
[[File:Pompeii_—_Dido_abandoned.jpg|thumb|Dido seated on a throne attended by handmaiden, looking at the personification of Africa wearing an elephant hide. Aeneas' ship features in the background. Fresco in [[Pompeii]]|264x264px]]

=== Dido flees Tyre ===
Virgil names Belus as Dido's father;<ref name=":3">[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0052%3Abook%3D1%3Acard%3D613 1.613]</ref> this figure is occasionally referred to as [[Belus II]] by later commentators to distinguish him from [[Belus (Egyptian)|Belus]], son of [[Poseidon]], and a figure in earlier [[Greek mythology]]. [[Classics|Classicist]] T. T. Duke suggests that this is a [[hypocoristicon]] of the historical father of Pygmalion and Dido, [[Mattan I]], also known as {{transliteration|phn|MTN-BʿL}} ({{transliteration|he|Matan-Baʿal}}, 'Gift of the Lord').<ref name="Duke 1969 pp. 135">{{cite journal |last=Duke |first=T. T. |year=1969 |title=Review: The World of the Phoenicians |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3296263 |journal=The Classical Journal |publisher=The Classical Association of the Middle West and South |volume=65 |issue=3 |page=135 |issn=0009-8353 |jstor=3296263 |access-date=25 May 2022}}</ref>

The ''Aeneid''<nowiki/>'s narrative closely follows that of [[Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus|Trogus]] and [[Junianus Justinus|Justin]]. However, while Trogus names the character Elissa, Virgil uses ''Dido'' as nominative, but uses ''Elissa'' (Eliza) in [[oblique case]]s. Virgil's Dido was a princess of [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]] who married [[Sychaeus]] (Acerbas), a wealthy priest of [[Hercules]], while her father was still alive. Sychaeus had a large store of hidden wealth, and Dido's brother [[Pygmalion of Tyre|Pygmalion]] murdered the priest so he could claim this wealth for himself. Sychaeus appeared to Dido in a dream, revealed her brother's actions and the true location of his wealth, and urged her to flee Tyre. She obeyed, and left the city with those who hated or feared Pygmalion.<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0052:book=1:card=335&highlight=sichaeus 1.335]</ref>

=== Aeneas arrives at Carthage ===
[[Image:Dido Cochet Louvre ENT2000.10.jpg|thumb|left|332x332px|''Dido'', attributed to [[Christophe Cochet]], formerly at the [[Château de Marly|Marly]] and currently at the [[Musée du Louvre|Louvre]]]]

[[Aeneas]], a [[Troy|Trojan]] prince who fled Troy after it fell to the Greeks, eventually landed on Carthage's shores after many years of wandering.<ref name=":3" /> Dido welcomed him warmly, having heard word about his exploits, and arranged a feast. However, [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]], Aeneas' mother, sensed that Dido and Carthage were under [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]]'s control. As leverage, she gave her son a dart that would make Dido fall madly in love with him. At the feast, Aeneas used the dart on Dido, and she was filled with a powerful, all-encompassing love and desire for him.<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0052%3Abook%3D1%3Acard%3D657 1.657]</ref> However, she was conflicted, as she had sworn never to remarry after her first husband was killed.<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0052%3Abook%3D4%3Acard%3D1 4.1]</ref> Juno became aware of Venus' actions, and proposed that they marry the couple and join the pair's kingdoms. By the goddess' design, the pair consummated their relationship in a cave.<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0052%3Abook%3D4%3Acard%3D160 4.160]</ref> However, while Dido called Aeneas her husband, Aeneas claimed they were never officially married.

When news of their relationship reached [[Iarbas]], a son of [[Jupiter (god)|Jupiter]] whose marriage offer Dido scorned, he angrily prayed to his father. Jupiter then dispatched [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]] to remind Aeneas of his journey and the city he was destined to found. Aeneas agreed and prepared to leave. When an enraged Dido confronted him and asked him to stay, he refused, as he could not deviate from his divinely ordained fate.<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0052%3Abook%3D4%3Acard%3D362 4.362]</ref>

=== Dido's suicide ===
Dido was enraged by this betrayal, and could no longer bear to live.<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0052%3Abook%3D4%3Acard%3D474 4.474]</ref> She had her sister [[Anna Perenna|Anna]] build a [[pyre]] under the pretense of burning all that reminded her of Aeneas, including weapons and clothes that he had left behind, and the couch she called their bridal bed. When Dido saw Aeneas' fleet leaving, she cursed him and proclaimed endless hate between Carthage and the descendants of [[Troy]], foreshadowing the [[Punic Wars]]. Dido then ascended the pyre, laid again on the couch, and stabbed herself with Aeneas' sword.<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0052%3Abook%3D4%3Acard%3D630 4.630] and [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0052%3Abook%3D4%3Acard%3D659 4.659]</ref> Anna rushed in and embraced her dying sister, and Juno sent [[Iris (mythology)|Iris]] to release Dido's spirit from her body.<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0052%3Abook%3D4%3Acard%3D693 4.693]</ref> From their ships, Aeneas and his crew saw the glow of the burning funeral pyre, and could only guess at what had happened.<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0052%3Abook%3D5%3Acard%3D1 5.1]</ref>  

At least two scholars have argued that the inclusion of the pyre as part of Dido's suicide— otherwise unattested in prior epics and tragedies— alludes to the self-immolation that took the life of Carthage's last queen, or the wife of its general [[Hasdrubal the Boetharch]], in 146&nbsp;BC.{{sfn|Edgeworth|1976}}

=== After death ===
During his journey in the [[Greek underworld|underworld]], Aeneas met Dido's [[Ghost|shade]], soaked in blood. Aeneas cried and begged her to forgive him, but she averted her eyes and stayed silent before turning to walk into a grove where her former husband Sychaeus waited.<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0052:book=6:card=426&highlight=dido 6.426]</ref>

==Later Roman tradition==

=== Ovid ===
[[Image:Guercino Morte di Didone.jpg|thumb|right|264x264px|''Death of Dido'', 1631 painting by [[Guercino]]]]In [[Ovid|Ovid's]] ''[[Heroides]]'', [[Epistle]] 7 is Dido's address to Aeneas just before she ascends the pyre and commits suicide. The narrative aligns with Virgil's, and focuses on Dido's grief and anger at being left behind by her lover.<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Heroides]]'', [https://www.theoi.com/Text/OvidHeroides2.html#7 7]</ref> 

In the ''[[Fasti (poem)|Fasti]]'', Ovid narrates the life of [[Anna Perenna]], a Roman goddess he identifies as Dido and Pygmalion's sister. After Dido's death, she is eventually shipwrecked onto the coasts of [[Latium]], home to Aeneas' settlement of [[Lavinium]]. However, Aeneas' wife Lavinia became jealous. She planned to murder Anna, but Dido's unkempt, blood-soaked ghost appeared before her sister's bed as she slept, begging her to flee. Anna obeyed and was swept away by the [[River gods (Greek mythology)|river god]] [[Numicus]] and transformed into a river [[nymph]].<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Fasti (poem)|Fasti]]'', [https://www.theoi.com/Text/OvidFasti3.html Idus 15th]</ref>

=== Silius Italicus ===
Dido's figure influences the plot of [[Silius Italicus]]’s poem ''[[Punica (poem)|Punica]]'', a retelling of the events of the [[Second Punic War]] which draws from the mythological roots of the conflict. In Book 1, Silius recounts Dido's founding of Carthage, ascribing the city's enmity with Rome to the conquering aspirations of its patron goddess [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]]. In a temple on the site of Dido's suicide, a young [[Hannibal]] learns about this history from his father [[Hamilcar Barca|Hamilcar]]. Hannibal then swears his famous oath that he will oppose Rome in war to "Elissa [Dido], by your shade." In this book, Silius also traces the ancestry of the Barcid family to a younger brother of Dido.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Italicus, Silius (c. 28–c. 103) - Punica (The Second Carthaginian War): Book I |url=https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/ItalicusPunicaBKI.php |access-date=2025-04-14 |website=www.poetryintranslation.com}}</ref> 

In Book 8, the spirit of Dido's sister Anna is sent to Hannibal by Juno. Anna tells not only of Dido's suicide and a ghostly visit from her sister, but her own wanderings from [[Cyrene, Libya|Cyrene]] to Italy, where she is ultimately deified as a river. Anna’s tale, as well as her prophecy of Hannibal’s future triumph in the [[Battle of Cannae]], rouses the Carthaginian general to battle.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Italicus, Silius (c. 28–c. 103) - Punica (The Second Carthaginian War): Book VIII |url=https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/ItalicusPunicaBKVIII.php |access-date=2025-04-14 |website=www.poetryintranslation.com}}</ref>
==Historicity and dating==
The oxhide story which explains the name of the hill is most likely of Greek origin since ''Byrsa'' means "oxhide" in Greek, not in [[Punic language|Punic]]. The name of the hill in Punic was probably just a derivation from [[Semitic root|Semitic]] ''brt'' "fortified place". But that does not prevent other details in the story from being Carthaginian, albeit still not necessarily historical. [[Michael Grant (author)|Michael Grant]] in ''Roman Myths'' (1973) claims that "Dido-Elissa was originally a goddess", and that she was converted from a goddess into a mortal (if still legendary) queen sometime in the later fifth century BC by a Greek writer.

Others conjecture that Dido was indeed historical, as described in the following accounts. It is unknown who first combined the story of Dido with the tradition that connected Aeneas either with Rome or with earlier settlements from which Rome traced its origin. A fragment of an epic poem by [[Gnaeus Naevius]] who died at Utica in 201&nbsp;BC includes a passage which might or might not be part of a conversation between Aeneas and Dido. [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]] in his commentary (4.682; 5.4) cites [[Marcus Terentius Varro|Varro]] (1st century BC) for a version in which Dido's sister Anna killed herself for love of Aeneas.
[[File:Meister des Vergilius Vaticanus 001.jpg|left|thumb|Aeneid, Book IV, Death of Dido. From the [[Vergilius Vaticanus]] (Vatican Library, Cod. Vat. lat. 3225)]]
Evidence for the historicity of Dido (which is a question independent of whether or not she ever met Aeneas) can be associated with evidence for the historicity of others in her family, such as her brother Pygmalion and their grandfather Balazeros. Both of these kings are mentioned, as well as Dido, in the list of Tyrian kings given in [[Menander of Ephesus]]'s list of the kings of Tyre, as preserved in [[Josephus]]'s ''[[Against Apion]]'', i.18. Josephus ends his quotation of Menander with the sentence "Now, in the seventh year of his [Pygmalion's] reign, his sister fled away from him and built the city of Carthage in Libya."

The [[Nora Stone]], found on Sardinia, has been interpreted by [[Frank Moore Cross]] as naming pmy[y]tn or p‘mytn, which is rendered in the Greek tradition as Pygmalion, as the king of the general who was using the stone to record his victory over the local populace.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cross |first1=Frank Moore |date=1972 |title=An Interpretation of the Nora Stone |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |volume=208 |issue=208 |pages=13–19 |doi=10.2307/1356374 |jstor=1356374 |s2cid=163533512}}</ref> On paleographic grounds, the stone is dated to the 9th century BC. (Cross's translation, with a longer discussion of the Nora stone, is found in the Pygmalion article). If Cross's interpretation is correct, this presents inscriptional evidence substantiating the existence of a 9th-century-BC king of Tyre named (in Greek) Pygmalion.

Several scholars have identified Baa‘li-maanzer, the king of Tyre who gave tribute to [[Shalmaneser III]] in 841&nbsp;BC, with {{script|Phnx|𐤁𐤏𐤋𐤏𐤑𐤅𐤓}} ''Ba‘al-'azor'' (Phoenician form of the name) or ''[[Baal-Eser II|Baal-Eser/Balazeros]]'' (Greek form of the name), Dido's grandfather.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Liver |first1=J. |date=1953 |title=The Chronology of Tyre at the Beginning of the First Millennium B.C. |journal=Israel Exploration Journal |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=113–120 |jstor=27924517}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Peñuela |first1=Joaquín M. |year=1953 |title=La Inscripción Asiria IM 55644 y la Cronología de los Reyes de Tiro |trans-title=The Assyrian Inscription IM 55644 and the Chronology of the Kings of Tire |journal=Sefarad |language=es |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=217–237 |id={{ProQuest|1300698169}}}}</ref><ref name="Cross, Nora Stone, 17, n. 11">{{harvnb|Cross|1972|loc=p. 17, n. 11}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Barnes |first1=William Hamilton |title=Studies in the Chronology of the Divided Monarchy of Israel |year=1991 |isbn=978-1-55540-527-4 |pages=29–55 |chapter=The Tyrian King List: An External Synchronism from Phoenicia |doi=10.1163/9789004369573_003}}</ref> This lends credibility to the account in Josephus/Menander that names the kings of Tyre from [[Abibaal]] and [[Hiram I]] down to the time of Pygmalion and Dido.

Another possible reference to Balazeros is found in the ''Aeneid''. It was a common ancient practice of using the [[hypocoristicon]] or shortened form of the name that included only the divine element, so that the "Belus" that Virgil names as the father of Dido in the ''Aeneid'' may be a reference to her grandfather, Baal-Eser II/Balazeros.{{cn|date=May 2022}} [[Classicist]] T. T. Duke suggests that instead it is a hypocoristicon of [[Mattan I]], who was also known as {{transliteration|phn|MTN-BʿL}} ({{transliteration|he|Matan-Baʿal}}, 'Gift of the Lord').<ref name="Duke 1969 pp. 135" />

Even more important than the inscriptional and literary references supporting the historicity of Pygmalion and Dido are chronological considerations that give something of a mathematical demonstration of the veracity of the major feature of the Pygmalion/Dido saga, namely the flight of Dido from Tyre in Pygmalion's seventh year, and her eventual founding of the city of Carthage. Classical authors give two dates for the founding of Carthage. The first is that of [[Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus|Pompeius Trogus]], mentioned above, that says this took place 72 years before the foundation of Rome. At least as early as the 1st century BC, and then later, the date most commonly used by Roman writers for the founding of Rome was 753&nbsp;BC.<ref>Jack Finegan, ''Handbook of Biblical Chronology'' (rev. ed.: Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998) 99.</ref> This would place Dido's flight in 753 + 72 = 825 BC. Another tradition, that of the Greek historian [[Timaeus (historian)|Timaeus]] ({{circa|345}}–260 BC), gives 814&nbsp;BC for the founding of Carthage. Traditionally most modern scholars have preferred the 814 date. However, the publication of the Shalmaneser text mentioning tribute from Baal-Eser II of Tyre in 841&nbsp;BC caused a re-examination of this question, since the best texts of Menander/Josephus only allow 22 years from the accession of Baal-Eser/Balazeros until the seventh year of Pygmalion, and measuring back from 814&nbsp;BC would not allow any overlap of Balazeros with the 841 tribute to Shalmaneser. With the 825 date for the seventh year of Pygmalion, however, Balazeros's last year would coincide with 841&nbsp;BC, the year of the tribute. Additional evidence in favor of the 825 date is found in the statement of Menander, repeated by Josephus as corroborated from Tyrian court records (''[[Against Apion]]'' i.17,18), that Dido's flight (or the founding of Carthage) occurred 143 years and eight months after [[Hiram I|Hiram]] of Tyre sent assistance to [[Solomon]] for the building of the Temple. Using the 825 date, this Tyrian record would then date the start of Temple construction in 969 or 968&nbsp;BC, in agreement with the statement in 1 Kings 6:1 that Temple construction began in Solomon's fourth regnal year. Solomon's fourth year can be calculated as starting in the fall of 968 BC when using the widely accepted date of 931/930 BC for the division of the kingdom after the death of Solomon. These chronological considerations therefore definitely favor the 825 date over the 814 date for Dido's departure from Tyre. More than that, the agreement of this date with the timing of the tribute to Shalmaneser and the year when construction of the First Temple began provide evidence for the essential historicity of at least the existence of Pygmalion and Dido as well as their rift in 825&nbsp;BC that eventually led to the founding of Carthage.

According to J. M. Peñuela, the difference in the two dates for the foundation of Carthage has an explanation if we understand that Dido fled Tyre in 825&nbsp;BC, but eleven years elapsed before she was given permission by the original inhabitants to build a city on the mainland, years marked by conflict in which the Tyrians first built a small city on an island in the harbor.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Peñuela |first1=Joaquín M. |date=1954 |title=La inscripción asiria Im 55644 y la cronología de los reyes de Tiro. Conclusión |trans-title=The Assyrian inscription Im 55644 and the chronology of the kings of Tyre. Conclusion |journal=Sefarad |language=es |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=3–42 |id={{ProQuest|1300698990}}}}</ref> Additional information about Dido's activities after leaving Tyre are found in the Pygmalion article, along with a summary of later scholars who have accepted Peñuela's thesis.

If chronological considerations thus help to establish the basic historicity of Dido, they also serve to refute the idea that she could have had any liaison with [[Aeneas]]. Aeneas fought in the [[Trojan War]], which is conventionally dated anywhere from the 14th to the 12th centuries BC, far too early for Aeneas to have been alive in the time of Dido. Even with the date of 864&nbsp;BC that historical revisionist [[David Rohl]] gives for the end of the Trojan War,<ref>David Rohl, ''The Lords of Avaris'' (London: Century, 2007) 474.</ref> Aeneas would have been about 77 years old when Dido fled Tyre in 825&nbsp;BC and 88 when she began to build Carthage in 814 (following Peñuela's reconstruction), hardly consistent with the romantic intrigues between Dido and Aeneas imagined by [[Virgil]] in the ''Aeneid''. According to [[Velleius Paterculus]], [[Cádiz]] and [[Utica, Tunisia|Utica]] (roughly meaning "Old Town" opposed to Carthage meaning "New Town") were founded more than 80 years after the Trojan War<ref>{{citation |author=[[Velleius Paterculus]] |title=[[wikisource:Compendium of the History of Rome/Book I#II|History of Rome I,II]]}}</ref> and before Carthage which he claimed was founded 65 years before Rome (753 + 65 = 818 BC).<ref>{{citation |author=[[Velleius Paterculus]] |title=[[wikisource:Compendium of the History of Rome/Book I#VI|History of Rome I,VI]]}}</ref>

==Continuing tradition==

[[File:10_TND_-_2005_-_obverse.jpg|thumb|[[Tunisian dinar]] banknote issued in 2005, with a portrait of Elissa]]

Numerous early Italian works refer to Dido, e.g., the misogynous ''Proverbia super natura feminarum'', 101-108 (''Proverbs on the Nature of Women'') (ca. 1152) and ''L’Intelligenza'' (1360-1380), where Dido is seen crying because Aeneas has left by sea. On seeing the departing sails billow in the air, she stabs herself in the stomach (stanzas 70-73).<ref>Renato Ricco, "Sulle tracce di Didone." Dissertation: Università degli Studi Di Salerno, 2008. [https://core.ac.uk/download/147335173.pdf Dissertation]</ref>

In the ''[[Divine Comedy]]'', Dante puts the shade of Dido (though not naming her) in the second circle of Hell (V, 61-62), where she is condemned among the lustful to be hurled for eternity in a fierce infernal storm ("la bufera infernal" [V, 31]). Virgil points to her saying, "L'altra è colei che s'ancise amorosa, / e ruppe fede al cener di Sicheo" ("The next is she who killed herself for love, / And broke faith with the ashes of Sichaeus" [Longfellow translation, 1867]). 

Contrary to Dante’s view of Dido as lustful, [[Petrarch]] and [[Boccaccio]], influenced by St. Jerome’s [[Adversus Jovinianum |Against Jovinianus]], portray Dido as a faithful wife to Sychaeus.<ref>C. Kallendorf, "Boccaccio’s Dido and the Rhetorical Criticism of Virgil’s ''Aeneid''," in ''Studies in Philology'', 82, no. 4, 1985, 401-415.</ref>

Petrarch refers to Dido both in his [[Trionfi (poem) |Trionfi]], specifically in the "Triumph of Chastity," where she is an exemplary widow, as well as in one of the [[Epistolae familiares#Seniles |''Letters of Old Age'']] (''Seniles'', IV, 5). She also appears in his epic poem [[Africa (Petrarch) |Africa]] (IV, 4-6).<ref>James Simpson, "Subjects of triumph and literary history: Dido and Petrarch in Petrarch's ''Trionfi'' and ''Africa''," ''Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies'', vol. 35, no. 3, 2005, pp. 489-508.</ref>

Boccaccio refers to her at least eight times, most notably in chapter 42 of [[''De Mulieribus Claris'' |''On Famous Women'']] (1361-1362), the first collection of biographies in Western literature devoted exclusively to women.<ref>Available in English from Harvard University Press | ISBN 9780674003477 | Publication date: 04/26/2001 as Giovanni Boccaccio, ''Famous Women'', edited and translated by Virginia Brown.</ref> Dido appears in five of his Italian works (''Ninfale d’Ameto'', ''Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta'', ''Filocolo'', ''Amorosa visione'', and ''Teseida'' (VI, 45) and three times in Latin. In addition to ''On Famous Women'', Dido’s story is narrated in his mythological treatise, [[''Genealogia deorum gentilium'' |''On the Genealogy of the Gods'']], and in [[''De casibus virorum illustrium'' |''On the Fates of Famous Men'']].<ref>See Zsófia Babics, "La Figura di Didone nelle Opere Latine del Boccaccio," ''Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae'', 50, no. 4, 2010. For ''De Mulieribus Claris'', see Elsa Filosa, ''Tre Studi sul De mulieribus claris''. Milan: Edizioni Universitarie LED, 2012, p. 101.</ref>

In Renaissance Italy, Dido’s story appears most notably in three tragedies: 
*Alessandro Pazzi de' Medici, ''Dido in Cartagine'' (1524) 
*Giambattista Giraldi Cinthio, ''Didone'' (1543) 
*Lodovico Dolce, ''Didone'' (1547) with the latter play being the most successful.<ref>Ronnie H. Terpening, "From Imitation to Emulation: The Fate of Infelix Dido in Cinquecento Tragedy" in ''Il Veltro, Rivista della civiltà italiana'', 40, nos. 3-4, 1996, 316-20.</REF>

In France, [[Christine de Pizan]] narrates the story of Dido in [[''The Book of the City of Ladies'' |''Le Livre de la cité des dames'']] (1405) (Book II, Chapter LV).

[[Hélisenne de Crenne]] (pseudonym of Marguerite Briet) evokes Dido in her sentimental novel [[''The Torments of Love'' |''Les Angoisses douleurs qui doit faire d'amour'']] (1538).

And [[Étienne Jodelle]] wrote a tragedy, apparently never staged, titled ''Didon se sacrifiant'' (''Dido Sacrificing Herself'') (1558). In the 17th century, [[Alexandre Hardy]] used the same title for one of his plays.<ref>René Martin, ''Énée et Didon : naissance, fonctionnement et survie d’un mythe'', Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1990.</ref> 

Dido's legend inspired the Renaissance drama ''[[Dido, Queen of Carthage (play)|Dido, Queen of Carthage]]'' by [[Christopher Marlowe]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dido-Queen-of-Carthage|title=Dido, Queen of Carthage {{!}} play by Marlowe and Nashe|work=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2017-08-04}}</ref>

[[Geoffrey Chaucer]] tells Dido’s story in his ''[[The Legend of Good Women]]'' (III: ''The Legend of Dido''), presenting her as an example of virtue. 

[[William Shakespeare]] refers to Dido twelve times in his plays: four times in ''[[The Tempest]]'', albeit all in one dialogue, twice in ''[[Titus Andronicus]]'', and also in ''[[Henry VI Part 2]]'', ''[[Antony and Cleopatra]]'', ''[[Hamlet]]'', ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' and, most famously, in ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'', in Lorenzo's and Jessica's mutual wooing:{{poemquote|
In such a night
Stood Dido with a willow in her hand
Upon the wild sea banks and waft her love
To come again to Carthage.<ref>''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'', Act 5, Scene 1</ref>}}

[[File:Henry Purcell "Dido & Aeneas" (extrait) - Les Arts Florissants, William Christie.webm|thumb|upright=1.4|[[Lea Desandre]] performs the "[[Dido's Lament]]" aria from [[Henry Purcell|Purcell]]'s ''[[Dido and Aeneas]]'' with [[Les Arts Florissants (ensemble)|Les Arts Florissants]] in 2020]]

The story of Dido and Aeneas remained popular throughout the post-Renaissance era and was the basis for many operas, with the libretto by [[Metastasio]], ''[[Didone abbandonata]]'', proving especially popular with composers throughout the eighteenth century and beyond:

* 1641: ''[[Didone (opera)|La Didone]]'' by [[Francesco Cavalli]]
* 1656: ''La Didone'' by Andrea Mattioli
* 1689: ''[[Dido and Aeneas]]'' by [[Henry Purcell]]
* 1693: ''[[Didon (Desmarets)|Didon]]'' by [[Henry Desmarets]]
* 1707: ''Dido, Königin von Carthago'' by [[Christoph Graupner]]
* 1724: ''Didone abbandonata'' by [[Domenico Sarro]]
* 1726: ''Didone abbandonata'' by [[Leonardo Vinci]]
* 1740: ''Didone abbandonata'' by [[Baldassare Galuppi]]
* 1742: ''Didone abbandonata'' by [[Johann Adolph Hasse]]
* 1747: ''Didone abbandonata'' by [[Niccolò Jommelli]]
* 1762: ''[[Didone abbandonata (Sarti)|Didone abbandonata]]'' by [[Giuseppe Sarti]]
* 1770: ''Didone abbandonata'' by [[Niccolò Piccinni]]
* 1783: ''[[Didon (Piccinni)|Didon]]'' by Niccolò Piccinni
* 1823: ''Didone abbandonata'' by [[Saverio Mercadante]]
* 1860: ''[[Les Troyens]]'' by [[Hector Berlioz]]
* 2007: ''Aeneas and Dido'' by [[James Rolfe (composer)]]

Also from the 17th century is a [[ballad]] inspired by the relationship between Dido and Aeneas. The ballad, often printed on a [[broadside (music)|broadside]], is called "[[The Wandering Prince of Troy]]", and it alters the end of the relationship between the two lovers, rethinking Dido's final sentiment for Aeneas and rewriting Aeneas's visit to the underworld as Dido's choice to haunt him.<ref>[http://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/search_combined/?ss=the+wandering+prince+of+troy English Broadside Ballad Archive], ballad facsimile and full text</ref>

[[File:Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland - The Meeting of Dido and Aeneas - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''[[The Meeting of Dido and Aeneas]]'' by [[Nathaniel Dance-Holland]], 1766|276x276px]]
In 1794 Germany, [[Charlotte von Stein]] wrote her own drama named ''Dido'', with an autobiographical element—as von Stein had been forsaken by her own lover, the famous [[Goethe]], in a manner which she found reminiscent of [[Aeneas]].

In Spain, Dido continues to be a source of inspiration for novelists in this century, in particular María García Esperón, ''Dido Para Eneas'' (Mexico, Ediciones El Naranjo, 2014) and Irene Vallejo, ''El silbido del arquero'' (Zaragoza: Editorial Contraseña, 2015).<ref>For earlier works in Spanish, see Maria Rosa Lida de Malkeil, ''Dido en la literatura española. Su retrato y defensa'', Tamesis Books, 1974.</ref> 

Will Adams' 2014 [[Thriller (genre)|thriller]] ''The City of the Lost''<ref>Will Adams,''The City of the Lost'', [[HarperCollins]], London, 2014, ISBN 978-0-00-742427-6</ref> assumes that Dido fled only as far as [[Cyprus]] and founded a city on the site of modern [[Famagusta]], that she died there and that Carthage was founded later, when Dido's followers fled further west after a vengeful expedition arrived from Tyre. In this interpretation, the two flights - from Tyre to Cyprus and from Cyprus to Carthage - were combined in later historical memory and all attributed to Dido. In Adams' account, the startling discovery of Dido's hideout and her well-preserved body happens accidentally during an attempted [[Coup D'etat]] by [[Turkish Army]] officers based in Cyprus.

In another modern interpretation, Dido appears in [[Sid Meier]]'s strategy games ''[[Civilization II]]'' and ''[[Civilization V]]'', as the leader of the Carthaginian civilization, although she appears alongside Hannibal in the former. In Civilization V, she speaks Phoenician, with a modern Israeli accent. In 2019, Dido was made the leader of [[Phoenicia]] in ''[[Civilization VI: Gathering Storm]]'', with Tyre as its capital and Carthage as an available name for subsequent cities.

In honor of Dido, the asteroid [[209 Dido]], discovered in 1879, was named after her. Another dedication of Queen Dido is the [[Mount Dido]] in [[Antarctica]].<ref name=gnis>{{cite gnis | type = antarid | id = 3853| name = Dido, Mount| access-date = 2012-01-19}}</ref>

Remembrance of the story of the bull's hide and the foundation of Carthage is preserved in mathematics in connection with the [[Isoperimetry|Isoperimetric problem]] of enclosing the maximum area within a fixed boundary, which is sometimes called Dido's Problem in modern [[calculus of variations]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wiegert |first=Jennifer |title=The Sagacity of Circles: A History of the Isoperimetric Problem - The Isoperimetric Problem in Literature {{!}} Mathematical Association of America |url=https://old.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/the-sagacity-of-circles-a-history-of-the-isoperimetric-problem-the-isoperimetric-problem-in |access-date=2025-03-10 |website=old.maa.org}}</ref> (Similarly, the [[Isoperimetric theorem]] is sometimes called Dido's Theorem.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}) 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 area) but the sources mention the thong only and say nothing about the sea.

Carthage was the [[Roman Republic]]'s greatest rival and enemy, and Virgil's Dido in part symbolises this. Even though no Rome existed in her day, Virgil's Dido curses the future progeny of the Trojans. In [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Italy during the Fascist administration]] of the 1920s to 1940s, she was regarded as a rival and sometimes negative figure, perhaps not only as a symbol of Rome's nemesis, but because she represented together at least three other unpleasant qualities: her reputation for promiscuity, her [[Semitic people|"Semitic race"]], and for being a symbol of Rome's erstwhile rival Carthage. As an example, when the streets of new quarters in Rome were named after the characters of Virgil's ''Aeneid'', only the name ''Dido'' did not appear.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025|reason=Can't find a source for this easily}}

[[Tunisian dinar|Tunisian currency]] depicting Dido (Elissa) was issued in 2006.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Masri |first1=Safwan M. |chapter=Carthage |pages=93–107 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sBgwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT145 |jstor=10.7312/masr17950.13 |title=Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly |date=2017 |publisher=Columbia University Press |doi=10.7312/masr17950 |isbn=978-0-231-54502-0 }}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==Selected bibliography==

* H. Akbar Khan, ''"Doctissima Dido": Etymology, Hospitality and the Construction of a Civilized Identity'', 2002.
* [[Elmer Bagby Atwood]], ''Two Alterations of Virgil in Chaucer's Dido'', 1938.
* S. Conte, ''Dido sine veste'', 2005.
* [[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.
* {{cite journal |last1=Edgeworth |first1=R. J. |title=The Death of Dido |journal=The Classical Journal |date=1976 |volume=72 |issue=2 |pages=129–133 |jstor=3297083 }}
* M. Fantar, ''Carthage, la prestigieuse cité d'Elissa'', 1970.
* L. Foucher, ''Les Phéniciens à Carthage ou la geste d'Elissa'', 1978.
* Michael Grant, ''Roman Myths'', 1973.
* M. Gras/P. Rouillard/J. Teixidor, ''L'univers phénicien'', 1995.
* H.D. Gray, ''Did Shakespeare write a tragedy of Dido?'', 1920.
* G. Herm, ''Die Phönizier'', 1974.
* T. Kailuweit, ''Dido – Didon – Didone. Eine kommentierte Bibliographie zum Dido-Mythos in Literatur und Musik'', 2005.
* R.C. Ketterer, ''The perils of Dido: sorcery and melodrama in Vergil's Aeneid IV and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas'', 1992.
* R.H. Klausen, ''Aeneas und die Penaten'', 1839.
* G. Kowalski, ''{{lang|la|De Didone graeca et latina}}'', 1929.
* A. La Penna, Didone, in Enciclopedia Virgiliana, II, 1985, 48–57
* 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 d’après Horace et Ovide'', 1993;
* L. Mangiacapre, ''Didone non è morta'', 1990.
* P.E. McLane, ''The Death of a Queen: Spencer's Dido as Elizabeth'', 1954.
* O. Meltzer, ''Geschichte der Karthager'', 1879.
* A. Michel, ''Virgile et la politique impériale: un courtisan ou un philosophe?'', 1971.
* R.C. Monti, ''The Dido Episode and the Aeneid: Roman Social and Political Values in the Epic'', 1981.
* S. Moscati, ''Chi furono i Fenici. Identità storica e culturale di un popolo protagonista dell'antico mondo mediterraneo'', 1992.
* R. Neuse, ''Book VI as Conclusion to The Faerie Queene'', 1968.
* {{cite conference |last1=Noël |first1=Marie-Pierre |title=Élissa, la Didon grecque, dans la mythologie et dans l'histoire |trans-title=Elissa, the Greek Dido, in mythology and history |language=fr |conference=Journée d'étude ”Les figures de Didon : de l'épopée antique au théâtre de la Renaissance”, lab. IRCL, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, Montpellier, 10 janvier 2014 |date=2014 |url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03071551/ |publisher=IRCL }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Nolfo |first1=Fabio |title='Epigr. Bob.' 45 Sp. (= Ps. Auson. 2 pp. 420 s. Peip.): la palinodia di Didone negli 'Epigrammata Bobiensia' e la sua rappresentazione iconica |journal=Sileno |date=2015 |volume=41 |issue=1–2 |pages=277–304 |hdl=2268/264046 |language=it |oclc=1121601459 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Nolfo |first1=Fabio |title=Su alcuni aspetti del movimento elegiaco di un epigramma tardoantico : la Dido Bobiensis |trans-title=On some aspects of the 'elegiac movement' of a late antique epigram: the 'Dido Bobiensis' |language=it |journal=Vichiana |date=2018 |volume=55 |issue=2 |pages=71–90 |doi=10.19272/201812802005 |hdl=2268/264045 }}
* [[Adam Parry]], ''The Two Voices of Virgil's 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; 
* A. Ziosi, Didone regina di Cartagine di Christopher Marlowe. Metamorfosi virgiliane nel Cinquecento, 2015;
* A. Ziosi, Didone. La tragedia dell'abbandono. Variazioni sul mito (Virgilio, Ovidio, Boccaccio, Marlowe, Metastasio, Ungaretti, Brodskij), 2017.

==Primary sources==
*Virgil, ''Aeneid i.338–368''
*Justinus, ''Epitome Historiarum philippicarum Pompei Trogi xviii.4.1–6, 8''

==External links==
{{Commons category|Dido}}
{{Wikisource1911Enc|Dido}}

'''Selected English texts''' <small>(''Alternate links found in Wikipedia entries for the respective authors.'')</small>
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20030902223732/http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/english/trans18.html#3 Forum Romanum: Justin 18.3f]}} (Contains [[Junianus Justinus|Justin]] (18.3–6) relating the early story of Elissa in full.)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040606112311/http://www.tonykline.free-online.co.uk/Virgilhome.htm Translation of Virgil's works including the ''Aeneid''] by [[A. S. Kline]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070406131254/http://courses.washington.edu/hum523/dido/HeroidesVII(trans).html Ovid's imagined letter from Dido to Aeneas, trans. Miceal F. Vaughan] (See also [[Ovid]].)
* [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=App.+Pun.+1.1 Appian, ''The Punic Wars'', chapter 1] (See also [[Appian]].)
* [http://courses.washington.edu/hum523/dido/index.html Dido, Queen of Carthage] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990901194817/http://courses.washington.edu/hum523/dido/index.html |date=1 September 1999 }}, original text, modernization, and discussion of [[Chaucer]]'s ''Legend of Dido''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040619025007/http://www2.prestel.co.uk/rey/dido.htm ''The Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage'', by Christopher Marlowe (and Thomas Nashe?)]. (See also [[Christopher Marlowe]].)
'''Commentary'''
* [http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Dido.html Greek Mythology Link: Dido]
* [http://www.queendido.org Queen Dido: Didone Liberata] (Mostly about a new four-act play by Salvatore Conte; it contains also a confutation of the well-known suicide into a subjective vision of Aeneas and his "comites" – 4.664, followed by Dido's catabasis)
* [http://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/vpc/VPC_search/subcats.php?cat_1=8&cat_2=15&cat_3=626&cat_4=970 Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (about 900 images related to the Aeneid – Dido appears in Books I and IV)]

{{Famous Carthaginians}}
{{Dido and Aeneas}}
{{Aeneid}}
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[[Category:9th-century BC queens regnant]]
[[Category:Africa in Roman mythology]]
[[Category:Ancient African women]]
[[Category:Ancient Greeks in Africa]]
[[Category:Carthaginian mythology]]
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[[Category:Characters in Book VI of the Aeneid]]
[[Category:Deified women]]
[[Category:Legendary Greek people]]
[[Category:Legendary monarchs]]
[[Category:Monarchs of Carthage]]
[[Category:Mythological city founders]]
[[Category:Phoenician characters in the Aeneid]]
[[Category:Tunisian women]]
[[Category:Queens regnant in Africa]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Dido|*]]