History of Carthage as a goddess at Carthage. The Roman poet Virgil (70–19 BC) presents Dido as a tragic heroine in his epic poem the "Aeneid", whose hero Aeneas travels from Troy, to Carthage, to Rome. The work contains inventive scenes, loosely based on the legendary history of Carthage, e.g., referring to the then well-known story how the Phoenician Queen cunningly acquired the citadel of the Byrsa. In Virgil's epic, the god Jupiter requires the hero Aeneas to leave his beloved Dido, who then commits suicide and burns in a funeral pyre. This episode employs not only the history or legends narrated by
Parallels between Virgil's Aeneid and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey his twin brother Remus with the she-wolf that cared for the twins, and Augustus' victory at the Battle of Actium. The first half of the "Aeneid" mimics the journey of Odysseus in several ways. Though the "Odyssey" takes course over the span of 24 books while the "Aeneid" replicates the happenings in the "Odyssey" in 6 books, there are several comparisons to make. Odysseus and Aeneas are both royalty, Odysseus being the king of Ithaca and Aeneas a Trojan prince. Without the help of divine intervention though, neither hero would have met his destiny, though there were opposing gods who