Editing Dido (section)

==Name==
[[File:Dosso Dossi 041.jpg|thumb|Dido, a painting by [[Dosso Dossi]].]]
Many names in the legend of Dido are of [[Punic language|Punic]] origin, which suggests that the first Greek authors who mention this story have taken up Phoenician accounts. One suggestion is that ''Dido'' is an epithet from the same [[Semitic root]] as ''[[David]]'', which means "Beloved".<ref>Barton, ''Semitic and Hamitic Origins'' (1934) at 305.</ref> Others state Didô means "the wanderer".<ref name="auto">{{Harvnb|Noël|2014|p=5}}</ref><ref>[[María Eugenia Aubet]], ''Tiro and the Phoenician colonies of the West'', 2nd edition, Bellaterra, 1994, p. 217</ref>

According to Marie-Pierre Noël, "Elishat/Elisha" is a name repeatedly attested on [[Punic language|Punic]] votives. It is composed of
* the Punic reflex of [[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Semitic/ʾil-|*ʾil-]] "god", which can mean the remote Phoenician creator god [[El (deity)|El]], or it can be [[names of God in Judaism#El|a name for God in Judaism]], 
and
* "‐issa", which could be either "[[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Semitic/ʾiš-|ʾiš]]" ([[wikt:𐤀𐤎|𐤀𐤎]]), meaning "fire", or another word for "woman".<ref>{{Harvnb|Noël|2014|p=3}}</ref> 
Other works state that it is the feminine form of El.<ref>Smith, ''Carthage and the Carthaginians'' (1878, 1902) at 13.</ref> In Greek it appears as ''Theiossô'', which translates Élissa: ''el'' becoming ''theos''.<ref name="auto"/>