Dido burned herself on the pyre after the Trojan hero Aeneas left her to continue on his voyage to find a new home.
According to Roman mythology, the Trojan Aeneas escaped burning Troy, after it fell to the Greeks in the great Trojan war, to find a new homeland. As he traveled west across the Mediterranean Sea (and he would eventually found the settlement that would precede Rome in Italy, he stopped in North Africa where he was received by Carthage's queen Dido, to whom he related his story. Dido wished him to stay but duty and destiny called, and Aeneas left with his men. Dido, in her despair, burned herself on the pyre - which was side to have been seen by Aeneas from the ship on which he was sailing. In this 1892 illustration Dido has brought all of Aeneas' belongings that he left behind, piled them on the funeral pyre, and is about to throw herself on it as well.
Size: 3359px × 5295px
Photo credit: © Ivy Close Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: aeneas, aeneid, ancient, carthage, city, commits, dido, early, founding, funeral, greek, hero, legend, myth, mythology, pyre, roman, rome, suicide, trojan, tunis, tunisia, virgil, war
