Abstract

Elissa and Dido, the two names of the Phoenician fugitive and founder of Carthage, refer to different versions of the Mediterranean myth, as developed by hostile peoples. In history, these tales have been distanced for millennia, until, due to the phenomenon of globalization, they have been intertwined again. Her power as a queen, her wisdom and her fury are inextricable from her life as a woman, a faithful widow, prepared to commit suicide or be sacrificed, as well as a stranger’s lover. Primarily considered as «Dido the Forsaken» by European poets and playwrights, in recent decades Dido’s character has been endowed with the power of strength, forgiveness and survival, giving birth to postcolonial and non-patriarchal literary genealogies