# Wandering Dido: Reclaiming a Carthaginian Queen by [[Josephine Quinn]] > Description: Dido the founder-queen of ancient Carthage was immortalized - and killed off - by Virgil’s Aeneid. As a result, she is too often read through a Roman lens for what she can tell us about Roman culture and ideas. I will focus instead on earlier versions of the story, and I will argue that although they survive in Greek and Roman accounts, they reflect not just a story told about the Carthaginians, but a Carthaginian myth. I’ll also investigate why the story was so important at Carthage from the fourth to second centuries BCE, before it transformed from a local colonial myth to a Roman imperial one. - Impressive architecture for 9th century BCE. - Carthage commanded the main east-west passage thru the Mediterranean. ![[Pasted image 20210401163730.png]] <figcaption>8th century Carthage </figcaption> - 6 story houses! At a time when Rome was mostly windy streets upland. Rotting fish into sauce, rotting sea snails into purple dye. - Makes the case that the story of Dido's foundation (that survived in Greek and Roman accounts) was a story told by Carthaginians about their own origins. ## 2 Foundation Myths for Carthage Philostophs of Syracuse says: The city was founded by 2 Tyrians around in 1215 BCE (a generation before the traditional date of the Trojan War). The names given, though, are just meanings of "New City" and "Tyre" so it's mostly just an etyomologiacl word thing — common among the Greeks, cross-ref [[The Amazons by Adrienne Mayor]]. Timaeus (see also [[Haegemans on Elissa of Carthage]]) has the other. ![[Pasted image 20210401164258.png]] ^ this actually goes over 14 different famous powerful women in the area. It's the ancient version of "Rejected Princesses" lol. ## Most discussions of Dido are in French ## Ancients on Dido ![[Pasted image 20210401164732.png]] ## By Fire or By Sword The Romans said Dido died by the sword (suicide) not by fiery pyre (like Timaeus said). ## Greeks ![[Pasted image 20210401171507.png]] Byrsa is the greek word for oxhide. The story is often called "anti-Carthiginian" propaganda because of the "trick" of Dido. Plus her "deception" of her brother (throwing the money, tricking into escape)... cunning and trickery aren't necessarily negative trait, though? No one is harmed by Dido, and even the oxhide thing doesn't really make life harder for the natives. ## Justin says the natives liked the Carthigians Lots of people are like "Can we join you?" "please stay?" "Let's trade!" ## She kidnapped Cyprian women "forced abduction." <— note that this wasn't any sort of trickery. Justin's version has a more Roman perspective on this. Justin is the source for: I apologize if I missed this (my son managed to fling himself into a piece of furniture so I spent about 10min in the middle of this on the phone with the doctor) but — you mentioned that she kidnapped Cyprian women ("forced abduction"). What is the source for this framing (as opposed to, say, "purchasing" or "offering a better life")? I'd love to look more into it! ![[Pasted image 20210401174413.png]] ## Her own "senators" tricked her into the marriage This is why she "had" to kill herself. But "senators" is probably a Roman thing; they were more likely just citizens (the nobles?) ## Virgil's Retelling In the retelling DIdo is tricked by Pygmalion; she loses all of her tricks, she's mostly a passive agent, everything comes from her dead husband in a dream. The thesis is that Virgil co-opts the Phoenician myth of a strong queen and turns her into some bullshit propaganda of not a strong queen but a wandering girl who isn't looking to found a city but really just find a husband. ## Phoenicians engaged in intermarriage with other ethnic groups ## 4th century Carthage shifts focus from the sea to inland That's around the time they start being the hegemonic power in north Africa. In that moment they expand into Africa. ## Punic Literary Accounts Q: You alluded to the Punic literary accounts we obviously don’t have. Can you elaborate on specifically what kind of Punic literature we think we are missing in terms of genre, attested works, and so forth? Or are we working purely in the realm of speculation on this front? A: There are lot of references to Phoenician scientific or agricultural writing, but not "stories" so it's hard to say what we're missing from Carthage... or even what language they would have been in.