tragic queen Elyssa, foundress
of Carthage. Her brother, Pygmalion
slew her husband, the chief priest
Acharbas and in the uproar fled
with Tyrian nobles, bearing gold
on a fleet of Phoenician ships.
Then on Mauritanian coastline
she bought some land to build
a new city-state, from the vantage
of Byrsa on which her citadel stands
'circumfenced' by strips of ox-hide
strung along the perimeter of the hill
The Berber chieftain rather stingily
offered as much land as an ox-hide
could cover and later on sought her
hand in marriage as the city grew
in wealth and regional importance
but she threw herself into flames
of a priestly funeral pyre to Tanit,
in self-immolation for the dead
god of vegetation, Adonis-Eshmun;
Dido, as she was known, hence was
elevated to goddess and patroness
of that great Punic realm of Carthage