Dido (3)

A character from the epic poem The Aeneid by the Roman poet, Virgil.

Dido was the queen of the city of Carthage on the northern coast of Africa; she fled her home city of Tyre and founded Carthage with a fortune she had hidden from her greedy brother, Pygmalion.

After the fall of the city of Troy, Dido welcomed the defeated army of Aineias and gave him every courtesy; the Roman goddess of Love, Venus, cast a spell on Dido and she was easily duped by Aineias into giving him all he needed to re-equip his fleet.

Aineias took Dido’s money and love without giving a thought to her feelings or her queenly image; when Aineias sailed away without a thank-you or goodbye, Dido killed herself rather than suffer the pain of loneliness of the humiliation of her naiveté.