## Josephine Quinn with [[Josephine Quinn]] >I recently reached out to Debby Sneed trying to find out more about the Temple of Juno in Cyprus around [[classical antiquity|800 BCE]], and she directed me to you. I'm a History teacher in America and am working on a fantasy series best described as a mashup of Rome's greatest defeats from the perspectives of the non-Romans, which has led to me trying to learn more about Carthage. > >In particular, I'm fascinated by the story of Elissa of Carthage and while I was doing some research about her (probable) circumstances, I came across an article by Karen Haegemans about Timaeus' account of Dido's journey from Tyre to [[Phoenician|Carthage]]. I wrote about it [[Haegemans on Elissa of Carthage|here]]. > >One particular detail stood out to me that I hadn't heard before and seems to have largely been ignored in popular discourse about [[Dido]]: > >>"The refugees were received hospitably on Cyprus, where a priest of Juno and his family joined the group and eighty young girls were taken along as wives for the colonists." > >I've spent the last month or so trying to figure out more about what this action might have looked like in context. I would be very grateful if you could point me to any resources that might be able to elaborate on what the role of the Temple of Juno might have been in this era, why it was a male priest of Juno instead of a female priestess who traveled with the girls, how "young" these girls might have been, and whether this sort of mass ... "taking" ... event happened at other points in this era or these cultures. > >I know that there is a lot of difficulty getting written evidence from the Phoenician or Punic states, but I was hoping that since the question is in many ways about the culture of Cyprus, there might be something to elaborate on what might have happened there. ><div></div> ><cite>— Eleanor Konik</cite> >Thanks for getting in touch. I fear you are right that a Cyprus specialist might be of more help - perhaps someone at a museum in your town/region? But I can say that this would not have been a temple of Juno - that’s just a translation, or more correctly synchronisation, in the later [[Roman]] account by Trogus, as summarised even later in Justin. (It is unclear whether Trogus’ account goes back to Timaeus, of which we also have only the summary; I’d say it is is likely, but unprovable.) > >Roman Juno equates in the eastern Mediterranean to the goddess Ashtart, sometimes called Astarte. In [[Greek]] she is called Aphrodite. And as well as looking at the worship of Ashtart on Cyprus, which is not something I’m afraid I know anything about, you might find it interesting to look at the account of the Temple of ‘Aphrodite’ at Corinth, a town full of international traders: Strabo 12.4.36. I doubt it has much to do with anything that really happened in the ninth century BCE - it is unclear that Dido really existed, and if she did, unlikely that any of the stories later attached to her are reliable - but it might (or might not!) give you a flavour of what Trogus - writing probably just a few decades before Strabo - might have had in mind. > > I actually helped make a programme for the World Service Forum programme a few days ago on legends of Dido, which will be broadcast in a few weeks: watch out for it! ><div></div> ><cite>— [[Josephine Quinn]]</cite> ## Dimitrios Mantzilas > I came across some of your articles and your CV on Academia.edu and I was wondering if you might be able to help me track down an answer to a question that's been nagging at me for weeks now. > > There's more context here in this [[Haegemans on Elissa of Carthage|analysis]] I wrote Karen Haegemans' article about Timaeus' take on Elissa of Carthage, but the jist of my question is: Why might a priest of the Temple of Juno on Cyprus around 700 BCE have traveled with "80 young girls" to help a Tyrian woman found Carthage? ><div></div> ><cite>— Eleanor Konik</cite> > First of, I am so sorry for the delay. > >I don't know if I have a clear answer to your question. I will just give you some thoughts. > >The first thing that comes to my mind is this: is [[Dido]] a simple woman or are we dealing with an old goddess (such as Medea, Ifigeneia, Dictynna, Aphaia, Britomartis and so many others) who was overshadowed by a most powerful goddess and became a simple heroine / queen / priestess etc.? Anna's sister, mentionned in the "Aeneid", has been identified with the [[Roman]] goddess Anna Perenna, mentionned in the "Fasti" so maybe there is a divine background in the family. > >Perhaps there was a local cult of Dido in Cyprus, which was overshadowed by Hera/Juno. For the installation of her (female) cult in Phoenicia 80 young girls (priestesses? slaves?) might have been recruited under Dido's supervision, who might have been the chief priestess (just like Ifigeneia, a lunar deity herself, became Artemis'/Diana's priestess in Tauris and later in Brabron, after the panhellenic cult of the later put her aside). > >Perhaps behind the etiological myth lies the financial and cultural trade between Cyprus and [[Phoenician|Phoenicia]] which is attested by inscriptions already from the 11th century BC. > >Maybe a political or imperialistic factor lies behind the story, I don't know... >I hope I gave you some material for further thinking. I really wish you all the best with your research. If you come to an answer, please let me know! ><div></div> ><cite>— Dimitrios Mantzilas</cite>