Drama included in:

A Bequest Unearthed, Phoenicia
Encyclopedia Phoeniciana

Drama catalogued and reviewed in:

Dido - Didon - Didone
Eine kommentierte Bibliographie zum Dido-Mythos in Literatur und Musik

Website reviewed in:

Il teatro. La voce dell'anima.

Fondazione Teatro La Fenice di Venezia

(per il ritorno della Fenicia dal suo Prospero)

con il Patrocinio di S.E. il Presidente della Repubblica Italiana

La Fille d'Elissa

Les premiers jours de Carthage commencent à l'image d'un conte de fées. Il était une fois une princesse phénicienne, d'une beauté achevée. Elle était la fille du roi de Tyr et s'appelait Elissa. Contrainte à l'exil, au lendemain de l'assassinat de son mari par son frère Pygmalion, héritier du trône, et par suite d'une révolution de palais, Elissa prit la mer avec ses gens et ses trésors. Son navire se dirigea vers l'ouest...

Conçue comme fille de Tyr, Carthage apparaît, dès sa naissance, placée sous le signe de la féminité et de l'ingéniosité.

La princesse établit alors une constitution pour la nouvelle cité, qui fit l'admiration des Anciens. Chateaubriand déclarait encore: "Aprés la mort de Didon, la nouvelle colonie adopta un gouvernement dont Aristote a vanté les lois. Des pouvoirs balancés avec art entre les deux premiers magistrats, les nobles et le peuple, eurent cela de particulier qu'ils subsistèrent pendant sept siècles sans se détruire: à peine furent-ils ébranlés par des séditions populaires et par quelques conspirations des grands".

Azedine Beschaouch, La légende de Carthage

Gallimard, 1993 (p. 13 - 14 - 17/18)

E' qui consultabile uno studio del Prof. Touhami Garnaoui sullo Stato cartaginese,

inerente le principali Istituzioni politiche di Cartagine nel periodo repubblicano:

Cacozelia latens

*Patronage*. "Sidonia Dido" 1.446 is emphatically the person responsible for this temple complex (as, eg, Augustus would be responsible for the Forum Augustum, inter alia). We should thus be alive to the ways in which the monuments represent a form of self-presentation (so Laurel, Ann Kuttner). Anne Duncan, citing Austin, noted that the peplos scene, which apparently alludes to Iliad 6, might provide a specific case in point: Homer says that this garment was the work of Sidonian women; Dido writing her people into the history of the Trojan War. This form of self presentation leads to interesting questions vis a vis Penthesilea, the last figure to appear in the scenes before we turn to Dido herself. Has Dido given prominence to Penthesilea (and for that matter to the African hero Memnon) because she sees herself as an analogue to the Amazon warrior? Here though Anne Duncan perceived a discrepancy between the rhetoric of literary and visual representation: Penthesilea is said to be fighting with one breast exposed (1.492). This is standard visual iconography. In an actual painting or sculpture, seeing her this way would be one of the things that would enable us to identify her as an Amazon. But the literary narrative has already identified her as an Amazon (490) and by name (491), making this detail strictly speaking gratuitous. Does inclusion of the detail represent a sexualized reading of the scene? by Aeneas? by the narrator? by ourselves? This question led to a brief discussion of the iconography of female nudity, specifically of partial undress: is there an iconographic similarity between Penthesilea and, eg, Ariadne? Clearly their states of undress differ in certain ways, but does the fact that their bodies are on display unite them in any way? This line of discussion, contrary to what was said about how art galleries encourage viewers to come up with their own readings of spatial, thematic, and iconographic relationships, and so implicitly ratify plural interpretations "in advance", showed the potential for conflict between the intended message of the patron and the one constructed by the viewer (Dido presumably sees Penthesilea and herself as chaste leaders; someone however appears to see both of them as sex-objects). Representation within the poem of conflicting interpretations might be taken as "accounting for" the different ways in which the Aeneid has been read, eg from the perspective of the victorious patron Augustus or from that of various vanquished others.

from Prof. Joseph Farrell's Course, University of Pennsylvania (1995)

With regard to Joe's thoughts on Books 2 & 3: It's funny that only now, as we're reading about Aeneas & Dido, do some elements of Aeneas' own narrative seem so interesting. For example, the Creusa story: Some see in this a negative moral portrait of Aeneas, but, as Joe puts it, what are we to make of the fact that Aeneas himself tells us about it? Doesn't he at least make the story more realistic - if not exactly apologetic - by neglecting to mention any concern for Creusa at the crucial time? Couldn't he have painted the episode in some other way more flattering to himself?

If the answer is no, things become even more interesting: It's Vergil who has control, and who attends to the manipulation of themes throughout (e.g., in this case, memory & the loss of it). He puts words in Aeneas' mouth that relate to material from the main narrative. I think this stuff relates to narratology's division of the *fabula* and the story - Here Vergil makes a character in the *fabula* participate in the writing of the story.
We the readers (and, arguably, Dido) are able to judge Aeneas both by his words and his actions (and by comparison of the two). But since I prefer to find literary, rather than moral, reasons for things in lit., I think of Aeneas *qua* character as pretty helpless, all in all.

Catherine C. Keane, University of Pennsylvania (1995)

Optimism, pessimism, and now polysemy...

In the case of a living author, that author can, of course, directly clarify the meaning of any statement but if that does not happen then we must use the same techniques of analysis that are involved in dealing with interpretative ambiguities when it is impossible for authorial intervention to take place.
Perhaps a few examples may help clarify the issue. In the debate that has unfolded over the past 60 years over the question of optimism, pessimism, and now polysemy in  the *Aeneid* we have learned a great deal more about the poem and are able to teach it far more accurately than in the past. I am far from being a professional Virgilian scholar but when I became interested in the subject I tried to discover how and when the traditional optimistic view began to be challenge. The earliest presentation of a pessimistic view which I located was an article by Francesco Sforza, "The Problem of Virgil," *Classical Review* XLIX (1935) 97-108. This is a passionate attack on Augustus and the imperial enterprise and obviously arises from Sforza's encounter with the rise of Fascism and National Socialism in Italy and Germany at the time. Thus political events contemporary with Sforza's classical researches suggested an avenue of investigation which has in subsequent decades proved quite fruitful. When an external event is suggestive of a new or different way to look at a classical text one would like to see independent confirmation of the validity of that approach and I think that much recent scholarship has found evidence for an ambiguous approach to Augustus and the subject of empire in the poem.
[...] It appears to me that interpretative success depends on finding relevant illumination for our texts and that there is no set boundary to what is relevant. Then we need to expose the results of our investigation to dialectical testing. If those results are useful to others they will probably tell us about it.

Leon Golden, Florida State University (1993)

Classical Greek and Latin Discussion Group

Another example is given by:

Speluncam Dido dux et Troianus eandem / deveniunt.

(4.165 / 166)

and by:

O sola infandos Troiae miserata labores,

(1.597)

S.C.

La parte più bella...

Ma la parte più bella e artisticamente felice è nella creazione tutta virgiliana della figura di Didone, presentata in un atteggiamento di così spontanea comprensione verso chi soffre che non esiterei a definire cristiano, e che solo un pre-cristiano come Virgilio poteva concepire e rendere con toni di così alta poesia.

L'eroina, che seppe improvvisarsi capo di un popolo fuggiasco e perseguitato, che condusse a buon fine una lotta disperata contro le popolazioni barbare e ostili dell'Africa, assicurando un avvenire di prosperità e di potenza a tante generazioni di Cartaginesi, è pur sempre una donna; e le ostilità, le lotte, le insidie, la perversità umana e l'odio di tanti nemici, non l'hanno abituata ad altrettanta perversità, né all'odio e neppure alla indifferenza, bensì alla comprensione delle sofferenze altrui e alla pietà.

Indimenticabile ed altamente poetico è anche quell'accenno di Enea ai tanti Troiani sparsi, esuli o schiavi, in tante parti del mondo, le cui parole non basterebbero per ringraziare Didone di essersi per prima mostrata così benevola e pietosa verso quei miseri avanzi dell'odio e della guerra.

Adriano Bacchielli, Eneide - commento al Primo Libro

Paravia, 1963-1981 (p. 16)

Dalla Gerusalemme Liberata di Torquato Tasso,

il recepimento della parabola virgiliana:

Rinaldo e Armida interpretano Enea e Didone...

(S.C.)

"Rinaldo non  è soltanto l'eroe che agisce nella cornice di un testo epico, ma simboleggia appieno la realtà profonda di ogni individuo, divenuto consapevole degli obblighi connessi allo statuto di essere umano, impegnato ad agire in nome dell'impegno, del rispetto e della responsabilità, per sé e soprattutto per gli altri".

Fabia Zanasi, Rinaldo nel giardino di Armida

The story of Dido's tragedy has always been the best known part of the Aeneid. It was a favoured theme in twelfth century French romances; in Chaucer's House of Fame it has twice as much space as the rest of the Aeneid; Marlowe's Dido, Queen of Carthage is among the most familiar dramas on the subject, and the operas of Purcell and Berlioz are well known. It has been said that Dido is the only character created by a Roman poet to pass into world literature.

Robert D. Williams, The Aeneid of Virgil - Books 1-6

New York, 1972 (p. 332)

Elle priait. Elle implorait Tanit et Ba'al Hammon, Elissa et Ba'al Shamin, afin que Rome n'aggravât point les conditions de paix; afin aussi que les récoltes de l'été fussent abondantes, qu'elles remplissent de blé et d'orge les magasins souterrains vidés de leurs derniers grains dans toutes les fermes du pays, tout comme l'étaient dans les villes les jarres destinées à la consommation courante.

La guerre commença donc dans les premiers mois de la cent quarante-cinquième olympiade, ce qui équivalait dans le calendrier punique à l'an 614 depuis la fondation de Carthage par la divine Elissa.

Tandis que Bodastaroth éperdu imaginait le pire et menaçait d'une mort terrible celui qui l'avait enlevée, Thanubra pénétrait sans bruit, sans que personne pût la reconnaître, dans le sanctuaire d'Elissa afin d'y offrir un sacrifice. Prosternée devant la statue de la divine princesse qu'elle vénérait plus qu'aucun autre dieu, elle pleurait son bonheur et sa reconnaissance en l'implorant de protéger Sibboleth et le petit garçon qui lui était né.

De la proue du bateau la belle Thanubra défiait la cité pour la dernière fois. Derrière elle le feu gagnait l'huile du pont, attaquant le plancher et le corps du navire avec un bruit d'enfer. Pour sauver le cothon d'un désastre effroyable, on isola les trois bateaux de Thanubra en remorquant loin d'eux ceux qui les voisinaient. Une vergue tomba, déployant ses flammèches et tous se reculèrent. L'incendie maintenaint illuminait le port et curieux, en émoi, tout Carthage accourait. Le feu sur les côtés grignotait vers la proue où, toujours immobile, attendait Thanubra. La foule se pressait comme en plein jour, gluante, muette et fascinée. Et lorsque Thanubra s'éloigna dans les flammes, un clameur monta jusqu'en haut de Byrsa: Elissa !

L'ellittica astuzia di Elissa

Isoperimetric Geometry

The isoperimetric theorem states that: “Among all shapes with an equal area, the circle will be characterized by the smallest perimeter” which is equivalent to “Among all shapes with equal perimeter, the circle will be characterized by the largest area.” The theorem’s name derives from three Greek words: ‘isos’ meaning ‘same’, ‘peri’ meaning ‘around’ and ‘metron’ meaning ‘measure’. A perimeter (= ‘peri’ + ‘metron’) is the arc length along the boundary of a closed two-dimensional region (= a planar shape). So, the theorem deals with shapes that have equal perimeters.

History of the theorem
The theorem was already known 900 years BC. An application is found in the story of Dido, as described in Virgil’s Aneid. Dido was a princess on the run from Tyrus (nowadays Lebanon).
She arrived in North Africa, at a site later known as Carthage (nowadays Tunisia). She wanted to buy some land from the local ruler, King Jambas. They agreed that she could buy all the land she could enclose within a bull’s hide. Consequently, Dido had the bull’s hide cut into small strips and had the strips stitched together. Let’s try to estimate the length of the ribbon used by the princess. We assume that the bull’s body is shaped like a cylinder, with a diameter of 100 cm and a length of 200 cm. Since the width of the strips used by Dido did not exceed 0.5 cm, we can estimate the length for a fixed width of 0.5 cm. Using our cylinder-shaped bull, we find the ribbon’s length is 1,257 m, which lies within the range of 1,000 and 2,000 m as reported by Virgil.
Dido put the ribbon on the ground in a way that it would enclose the maximum area. So Dido had to solve the isoperimetric theorem! According to the story, Princess Dido solved the problem, and acquired 8 to 32 hectares of land. [A hectare is 10,000 m2] Let’s do the exercise for a ribbon of length 1,257 m. If the ribbon is placed on the ground in a circle, it will enclose 12.6 hectares. If the ribbon is arranged in a square, it encloses 9.9 hectares. As rectangles with sides 200x428.5 or 100x528.5 m, the corresponding areas are 8.6 and 5.3 hectares, respectively.
However, Princess Dido used one more trick. Virgil relates that Dido connected the end points of the ribbon to a straight segment of the Mediterranean coast, so the ribbon formed the shape of a semicircle. In this way, even a larger area was enclosed, since the sea coast length was added to the ribbon length. For our ribbon of 1,257 m, this would generate an area of 25.1 hectares, which lies within the reported range.

Per la pace e la fratellanza nel Mediterraneo,

nel segno di Elissa,

tre millenni dopo.

de l'Organisation des Nations Unies

Stefano Danedi (c. 1640):

Salvatore Conte

(2010)

Quer pasticciaccio insoluto de via Merulana

“Il giallo non ha soluzione e non si chiude con la scoperta del colpevole” (Wikipedia, gennaio 2012).
L’ossessivo ritornello, condiviso da tutta la critica, secondo cui nel capolavoro di Carlo Emilio Gadda, “Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana”, manchi il colpevole, ci ha convinto di non poterci esimere da una pubblica dichiarazione sull’argomento.
In effetti, il soggetto “giallo” è solo un pretesto. In realtà, il romanzo è una tragicommedia sul relativismo umano, secondo cui la percezione dei fatti è più decisiva dei fatti medesimi, in sé stessi considerati, ammesso che esistano in sé stessi, in quanto fatti.
Dunque il fatto, il fattaccio, è il risultato della pasticciata combinazione di spinte individuali e collettive, una sommatoria arbitraria di forze variamente intrecciate fra loro che determinano fatti relativi.
Ecco perché non può esserci un singolo colpevole, ovvero il tradizionale colpevole della giallistica moderna, che esprime null’altro che la comoda tentazione dell’oligarchia borghese di attribuire le responsabilità collettive a singole deviazioni umane.
Da un punto di vista narratologico, il romanzo “giallo” di Gadda è privo di verità oggettiva (ammesso che questa esista in natura), cioè racconta non un fatto ma un pasticciaccio, ovvero una realtà prefigurata, una realtà probabilistica, una realtà passata e futura ma non presente.
Tuttavia, proprio come in un giallo classico, è il bravo Commissario Ingravallo a risolvere il caso, perché egli - affascinato dalla vittima, Liliana Balducci - non rivela al lettore alcun colpevole.
Soltanto Ingravallo - infatti - ha un reale interesse a non trovare alcun colpevole possibile.
Perché il fatto, anzi il fattaccio - almeno in via Merulana - non sussiste.
Opera dunque autenticamente pagana, svolta nei luoghi e con l’onomastica dell’epica virgiliana.

Salvatore Conte