Vox Populi 2023

Dido
Katia, Lower Sixth
When asked who Dido was,
the Phoenician queen
whose love affair with
the Trojan Aeneid pulled
her away from her promise to her late
husband and towards her suicide is
the most common answer. However,
before Virgil was commissioned by the
Emperor August to write the Aeneid,
different classical writers spread stories
of a different Dido. One who never
met Aeneas, never was swayed from
protecting her people instead dying for
their safety, and never replaced her dead
husband.
Pompeius Trogus (a Gallo-Roman
historian) writes of Dido – who he calls
‘Alishat’ -fleeing Phoenicia and once
completing a long Odyssey-like journey
she arrives in North Africa. After her
arrival, she commits a grand suicide on
a pyre with many sacrifices to prevent
being forced to a local chieftain. In this
version, Dido founds her North African
city-state 70 years before Aeneas’ journey,
thus eradicating any chances of their
intense love affair, and her character is
not reduced to a love interest. Moreover,
another intensive history written by
Timaeus of Tauromenium mentions
a queen, who he calls Theoisso and
says was called Elissa or Alishat by the
Phoenicians- the daughter of Pygmalion,
King of Tyre. Similarly, she is forced to
marry a local king and kills herself by
jumping into an enormous pyre. There
is no mention of Aeneas, or his arrival,
and this Dido is presented as a strong and
independent leader.
Different interpretations of Dido didn’t
fizzle out after Virgil’s propagandized
presentation becomes popular. For
instance, Livy makes no mention of Dido
in connection to Aeneid, and Macrobius
(an author of late Antiquity) claims Virgil
was inspired by the relationship between
Jason and Medea for Dido and Aeneas’
relationship.
Opposite: The Meeting of Dido
and Aeneas
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