Dido, Or Elissa, a legendary Phoenician princess and founder of Carthage, daughter of Mutgo, Belus, or Agenor, king of Tyre. According to Justin, she was the wife of her uncle Acerbas (the Sichaeus of Virgil), priest of Hercules, who was murdered for his wealth by Pygmalion, the son and successor of Mutgo. Dido dissembled her sorrow, and with a number of disaffected Tyrian nobles escaped from her native country, bearing the treasures of her murdered husband. The party first landed at the island of Cyprus, whence they carried off by force 80 maidens, and then pursuing their journey debarked on the coast of Africa, purchased as much land as might be covered with the hide of a bull, and by cutting the hide into thin strips enclosed a large tract of country, on which the city of Carthage soon began to rise. (See Carthage.) Their prosperity excited the jealousy of a neighboring chief, Hiarbas, who demanded the hand of Dido in marriage, and threatened war in case of refusal. The queen asked three months for consideration, at the end of which time she mounted upon a funeral pile and plunged a sword into her breast.

Virgil represents her as killing herself on being abandoned by AEneas.