[Dido Stabbing Herself to Honour her Chastity] · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: [Dido Stabbing Herself to Honour her Chastity]
Subject: Important Queens; Dido; Founding of Carthage; Chastity; Important Women
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: North Africa; Carthage
Description: Dido, the founder and queen of Carthage, is illustrated on top of the city’s walls on the left side of the image stabbing herself with a knife. After her husband, Acerbas, had been killed by her brother, she fled to Africa and founded Carthage and vowed to remain chaste in honour of her husband. When a foreign king asked for Dido’s hand in marriage and threatened to sack the city if she denied, she stabbed herself to protect her chastity. The foreign king and his subjects are pictured on the ground in front of the castle and a fire.
Image Creator: Anonymous (Illuminator)
Type: Text; Illumination
Identifier: mta:11996
Language: frm
Source Name: De la louenge et vertu des nobles et cleres dames [Of praise and virtue of the noble and clergy women]
Parent Collection: 1493 Paris
Image: mta_11996_OBJ.png