Chapter 14: Thebes
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Diodorus Siculus 3.64.3-4
The third Dionysus, they say, was born in Boeotian Thebes of Zeus and Semelê, the daughter of Cadmus. The myth runs as follows: Zeus had become enamoured of Semelê and often, lured by her beauty, had consorted with her, but Hera, being jealous and anxious to punish the girl, assumed the form of one of the women who was an intimate of Semelê’s and led her on to her ruin; for she suggested to her that Zeus should lie with her while having the same majesty and honour in his outward appearance as when he took Hera to his arms. Consequently Zeus, at the request of Semelê that she be shown the same honours as Hera, appeared to her accompanied by thunder and lightning, but Semelê, unable to endure the majesty of his grandeur, died and brought forth the babe before the appointed time. Greek Text
Diodorus Siculus 4.3.2-3
Semelê was loved by Zeus because of her beauty, but since he had his intercourse with her secretly and without speech she thought that the god despised her; consequently she made the request of him that he come to her embraces in the same manner as in his approaches to Hera. Accordingly, Zeus visited her in a way befitting a god, accompanied by thunder and lightning, revealing himself to her as he embraced her; but Semelê, who was pregnant and unable to endure the majesty of the divine presence, brought forth the babe untimely and was herself slain by the fire. Greek Text
Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.256-315
Now a fresh
occasion has been added to her grief,
and wild with jealousy of Semele,
her tongue as ever ready to her rage,
lets loose a torrent of abuse;
“Away!
Away with words! Why should I speak of it?
Let me attack her! Let me spoil that jade!
Am I not Juno the supreme of Heaven?… Latin Text
ApB 3.4.3 – Apollodoros, Bibliotheke (Library)
But Zeus loved Semele and bedded with her unknown to Hera. Now Zeus had agreed to do for her whatever she asked, and deceived by Hera she asked that he would come to her as he came when he was wooing Hera. Unable to refuse, Zeus came to her bridal chamber in a chariot, with lightnings and thunderings, and launched a thunderbolt. But Semele expired of fright, and Zeus, snatching the sixth-month abortive child from the fire, sewed it in his thigh. Greek Text
Hyginus, Fabulae 167
When she was made pregnant by this, Juno, changing herself to look like Semele’s nurse, Beroe, said to her: “Daughter, ask Jove to come to you as he comes to Juno, so you may know what pleasure it is to sleep with a god.” At her suggestion Semele made this request of Jove, and was smitten by a thunderbolt. Latin Text
Hyginus, Fabulae 179
Jove desired to lie with Semele, and when Juno found out, she changed her form to that of the nurse Beroe, came to Semele, and suggested that she ask Jove to come to her as he came to Juno, “that you may know”, she said, “what pleasure it is to lie with a god.” And so Semele asked Jove to come to her in this way. Latin Text
Hyginus, Fabulae 167
Liber, son of Jove and Proserpine, was dismembered by the Titans, and Jove gave his heart, torn to bits, to Semele in a drink. Latin Text
♦ Berkeley, University of California, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology 8.3316: Attic red-figure hydria with death of Semele through Zeus’ thunderbolt, Hermes with infant Dionysos, Iris and Hera
Beazley Archive Pottery Database
♦ Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 95.39: Attic red-figure lekythos, with birth of Dionysos from Zeus’ thigh, in presence of Hermes
Drawing by J.D. Beazley, from Beazley Archive Pottery Database
AP 3.1 – Palantine Anthology, Cyzicene Epigrams
1.—On Dionysus conducting his mother Semele to Heaven, preceded by Hermes, Satyrs, and Sileni escorting them with Torches.
The fair-haired daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, slain in childbirth by the bolt of Zeus, is being led up from Acheron by her son Dionysus, the thyrsus-lover, who avengeth the godless insolence of Pentheus. Greek Text
Diodoros Siculos 4.25.4
for the myths relate that Dionysus brought up his mother Semelê from Hades, and that, sharing with her his own immortality, he changed her name to Thyonê. Greek Text
ApB 3.5.3 – Apollodoros, Biblioteke (Library)
and having brought up his mother from Hades and named her Thyone, he ascended up with her to heaven. Greek Text
Plutarch, Moralia 565f-566a
This was the route, the guide said, that Dionysus had taken in his ascent and later when he brought up Semele; and the region was called the place of Lethe. Greek Text
Pausanias 2.31.2
It is here that they say Semele was brought out of Hell by Dionysus, and that Heracles dragged up the Hound of Hell.1 But I cannot bring myself to believe even that Semele died at all, seeing that she was the wife of Zeus. Greek Text
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Artistic sources edited by Frances Van Keuren, Prof. Emerita, Lamar Dodd School of Art, Univ. of Georgia, July 2020
Literary sources edited by Elena Bianchelli, Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, University of Georgia, March 2020
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