Dido

Dido
/duy"doh/, n.
1. Phoenician, Elissa. Class. Myth. a queen of Carthage who killed herself when abandoned by Aeneas.
2. a female given name.

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In Greek legend, the founder of Carthage.

She fled to North Africa after the murder of her husband and bought land from a local chieftain, Iarbas. She killed herself rather than marry him. Virgil altered the story in his Aeneid, in which Dido welcomes Aeneas to Carthage during his travels, becomes his lover, and kills herself when he abandons her.

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▪ Classical mythology
also called  Elissa,  

      in Greek legend, the reputed founder of Carthage, daughter of the Tyrian king Mutto (or Belus), and wife of Sychaeus (or Acerbas).

      Her husband having been slain by her brother Pygmalion, Dido fled to the coast of Africa where she purchased from a local chieftain, Iarbas, a piece of land on which she founded Carthage. The city soon prospered, and Iarbas sought Dido's hand in marriage. To escape from him, Dido constructed a funeral pyre, on which she stabbed herself before the people. Virgil, however, in his Aeneid, reshaped this story to make Dido a contemporary of Aeneas, whose descendants founded Rome. Dido fell in love with Aeneas after his landing in Africa, and Virgil attributes her suicide to her abandonment by him at the command of Jupiter. Her dying curse on the Trojans provides a mythical origin for the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage. Dido has been identified by modern scholars with the Virgo Caelestis; i.e., Tanit, the tutelary goddess of Carthage.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Dido — DIDO, ûs, oder ónis, Gr. Διδὼ, οῦς, (⇒ Tab. XV.) 1 §. Namen. Eigentlich hieß diese Königinn Elissa, welches von El Issa so viel, als eine Heldinn oder göttliche und tapfere Frau, Scaliger ad Velleii lib. I. c. 6. & Chevreau Hist. du Monde L. VI.… …   Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon

  • Dido — Основная информация Полное имя …   Википедия

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  • DIDO — sive Eliza, Beli vel Metrae Tyriorum Regis filia, quae primis nuptiis Sichaeo Herculis sacerdoti iuncta fuit; quem cum Pygmalion, Elizae frater, thesauris eius inhians ante aram obtruncasset, illa in somniis monita, cum iis, quibus Pygmalionem… …   Hofmann J. Lexicon universale

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  • Dido — Dido. Die berühmte Gründerin und Königin Karthago s, eine phönicische Königstochter, welche, nachdem ihr Bruder Pygmalion ihren Gemahl Sicheus ermordet hatte, mit ihren Reichthümern die Heimath verließ. An der Küste von Afrika, in der Nähe des… …   Damen Conversations Lexikon

  • Dido — {{Dido}} Königstochter aus Tyros, auch Elissa genannt, die vor ihrem Bruder nach Afrika floh, als dieser aus Habgier ihren Mann ermordete. Der Numiderkönig Iarbas versprach ihr auf ihre Bitten hin so viel Land, wie sie mit einer Rinderhaut… …   Who's who in der antiken Mythologie

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