Elissas lange Reise

Abstract

As a rule, Phoenician settlements in the western Mediterranean do not have foundation myths; the one exception is Carthage, for which there are no fewer than three narratives. The most famous one is the story centred around the Tyrian princess Dido (Elissa), who when pursued by her tyrant brother, Pygmalion, escaped to the shores of North Africa. The legend is a prototypical migration myth, with the classical repertoire of stereotypical motives: seafaring, otherness, cross-cultural encounters. The paper investigates the role knowledge transfer, space and place, and genealogy play in a narrative whose origins are lost in the mists of time.

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