The History of Antiquity, Vol. 2 (of 6)Duncker, Max
History
The History of Antiquity, Vol. 2 (of 6)
Duncker, Max
History, Ancient
Elissa fled from Tyre before her brother, as we are told, with others
who would not submit to the tyranny of Pygmalion.[486] The exiles (we
may perhaps suppose that they were members of old families, as it was
apparently the people who had transferred the throne to Pygmalion) are
said to have first landed at Cyprus, then to have sailed to the
westward, and to have landed on the coast of Africa, in the
neighbourhood of Ityke, the old colony of the Phenicians, and there to
have bought as much land of the Libyans as could be covered by the skin
of an ox. By dividing this into very thin strips they obtained a piece
of land sufficient to enable them to build a fortress. This new
dwelling-place, or the city which grew up round this fortress, the
wanderers called, in reference to their old home, Karthada (_Karta
hadasha_), _i.e._ "the new city," the Karchedon of the Greeks, the
Carthage of the Romans. The legend of the purchase of the soil may have
arisen from the fact that the settlers for a long time paid tribute to
the ancient population, the Maxyans, for their soil. The ox-hide and all
that is further told us of the fortunes of Elissa, her resistance to the
suit of the Libyan prince Iarbas,[487] her self-immolation in order to
escape from this suit (Virgil made despised love the motive for this
immolation), is due to the transference of certain traits from the myths
of the horned moon-goddess, to whom the cow is sacred, the wandering
Astarte, who also bore the name of Dido, and of certain customs in the
worship of the goddess to Carthage; these also have had influence on the
narrative of the flight of Elissa.[488]
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