Dido, << DY doh >>, also called Elissa << ih LIHS uh >>, was the legendary founder and queen of Carthage. She was the daughter of King Belus of Tyre, and the wife of Sychaeus, or Acerbas. She fled to Africa with many devoted followers after her brother, Pygmalion, murdered her husband. There she was offered as much land as might be surrounded by a bull’s hide. She cut a hide into thin strips, pieced them together, and laid them out to surround a large area. This area became the site of Carthage (see Carthage).
In the original legend, Dido died by suicide to escape an African prince who wished to marry her. But in the Roman epic poem the Aeneid, Dido killed herself after the Trojan hero Aeneas deserted her. Aeneas later saw Dido when he visited the underworld, but she had been happily reunited with Sychaeus and would not look at Aeneas (see Aeneid).
