Editing Semele

{{short description|Mother of Dionysus in Greek mythology}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Redirect|Stimula|a synonym of a genus of grass skipper butterflies|Koruthaialos }}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Greek
| name = Semele
| deity_of = Princess of [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]]<br>Goddess of the Bacchic frenzy
| image = Jupiter and Semele by Gustave Moreau.jpg
| alt = 
| caption = ''[[Jupiter and Semele]]'' (1894-95)<br>by [[Gustave Moreau]]
| abode = Thebes, [[Mount Olympus]]
| gender = 
| consort = [[Zeus]]
| parents = [[Cadmus]] and  [[Harmonia (mythology)|Harmonia]]
| siblings = [[Autonoë of Thebes|Autonoë]], [[Agave of Thebes|Agave]], [[Ino (Greek mythology)|Ino]] and [[Polydorus of Thebes|Polydorus]]
| children = [[Dionysus]]
| member_of = the Theban Royal Family
| other_names = Thyone
}}

'''Semele''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|ɛ|m|ɪ|l|i}}; {{Langx|grc|Σεμέλη|Semélē}}), or '''Thyone''' ({{IPAc-en|θ|aɪ|'|əʊ|n|i}}; {{Langx|grc|Θυώνη|Thyṓnē}}) in [[Greek mythology]], was the youngest daughter of [[Cadmus]] and [[Harmonia (Greek goddess)|Harmonia]], and the mother<ref>Although Dionysus is called the son of Zeus (see [http://www.greektheatre.gr/cult.html The cult of Dionysus : legends and practice] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011212745/http://greektheatre.gr/cult.html |date=2007-10-11 }}, [http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Dionysos.html Dionysus, Greek god of wine & festivity], [http://www.religionfacts.com/greco-roman/gods/olympians.htm The Olympian Gods] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071002120759/http://www.religionfacts.com/greco-roman/gods/olympians.htm |date=2007-10-02 }}, {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20131017093327/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/1052.html Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]}}, [http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Dionysus.html The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2007], etc.), Barbara Walker, in ''The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets,'' (Harper/Collins, 1983) calls Semele the "Virgin Mother of Dionysus", a term that contradicts the picture given in the ancient sources: [http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/epics/CollectionofHesiod/chap20.html Hesiod] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080106231049/http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/epics/CollectionofHesiod/chap20.html |date=2008-01-06 }} calls him "Dionysus whom Cadmus' daughter Semele bare of union with Zeus", [http://www.greece.com/library/euripidis/bacchantes_06.html Euripides] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724124222/http://www.greece.com/library/euripidis/bacchantes_06.html |date=2008-07-24 }} calls him son of Zeus, [http://classics.mit.edu/Ovid/metam.3.third.html#323 Ovid] tells how his mother Semele, rather than Hera, was "to Jove's embrace preferred", [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Aabo%3Atlg%2C0548%2C001&query=3%3A4%3A3 Apollodorus] says that "Zeus loved Semele and bedded with her".</ref> of [[Dionysus]] by [[Zeus]] in one of his many [[origin myth]]s.

Certain elements of the cult of Dionysus and Semele came from the [[Phrygia]]ns.<ref>Martin Nillson (1967).''Die Geschichte der Griechischen Religion, Vol I''. C. H. Beck Verlag. München p. 378</ref> These were modified, expanded, and elaborated by the Ionian [[Greeks|Greek]] invaders and colonists. [[Dorians|Doric Greek]] historian [[Herodotus]] (c. 484–425 BC), born in the city of [[Halicarnassus]] under the [[Achaemenid Empire]], who gives the account of Cadmus, estimates that Semele lived either 1,000 or 1,600 years prior to his visit to [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]] in 450 BC at the end of the [[Greco-Persian Wars]] (499–449 BC) or around 2050 or 1450 BC.<ref>{{cite book|author=Herodotus|author-link=Herodotus|translator-last=de Sélincourt|translator-first=Aubrey|editor-last=Marincola|editor-first=John|year=2003|orig-year=1954|title=Histories|title-link=Histories (Herodotus)|place=New York|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]|edition=Reprint|page=155|isbn=978-0140449082|quote=But from the birth of [[Dionysus]], the son of Semele, daughter of [[Cadmus]], to the present day is a period of about 1000 years only; ...}}</ref><ref>Herodotus, Histories, II, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126;query=chapter%3D%23367;layout=;loc=2.144.1 2.145]</ref> In Rome, the goddess [[#In Roman culture|Stimula]] was identified as Semele.

Semele was the subject of the now lost [[Greek tragedy|tragedy]] by [[Aeschylus]] called ''Semele'' (''Σεμέλη'') or ''Wool-Carders'' (''Ξάντριαι'').<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Aeschylus |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/221175214 |title=Fragments |last2=Sommerstein |first2=Alan H. |date=2008 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-99629-8 |series=Loeb classical library |location=Cambridge, Mass |pages=224 |oclc=221175214}}</ref>

==Etymology==
According to some linguists the name Semele is [[Thracians|Thraco]]-[[Phrygians|Phrygian]],<ref>Kerenyi 1976 p. 107; Seltman 1956</ref> derived from a [[PIE]] root meaning 'earth'. A  [[Phrygian language|Phrygian]]  inscription refers to ''diōs zemelō'' ({{Lang|grc|διως ζεμελω}}). The first word corresponds to [[Greek language|Greek]] ''Zeus'' (genit. Dios) and the second to ''earth'' in some [[Indo-European language]]s.<ref>[[Slavic language|Slavonic]] ''zemlya'':earth, [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]] ''žemýna'': the earth goddess: Martin Nillson (1967).''Die Geschichte der Griechischen Religion, Vol I''. C. H. Beck Verlag. München p. 568;</ref> [[Julius Pokorny]] reconstructs her name from the PIE root ''*''{{Lang|mis|dgem-}} meaning 'earth' and relates it with [[Thracian language|Thracian]] {{Lang|txh|Zemele}}, '[[Earth goddess|mother earth]]'.<ref>[[Julius Pokorny]].''[[Indogermanisches Etymologisches Woerterbuch]]'': root ''*dgem''. Compare ''Damia'' and "Demeter" (mother earth).</ref> Compare [[Žemyna]] (derived from žemė – earth), the goddess of the earth (mother goddess) in [[Lithuania|Lithuanian mythology]], and Zeme, also referred to as [[Zemes-mãte]], a [[Slavs|Slavic]] and [[Latvia]]n goddess of the earth.<ref>Ann, Martha and Myers Imel, Dorothy. (1993). ''Goddesses in World Mythology''. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.</ref><ref>[[Marija Gimbutas|Gimbutas, Marija]]. "[https://books.google.com/books?id=7DfI39EDbMcC&pg=PA208 The Living Goddesses]".</ref>

Mallory and Adams suggest that, although Semele is "etymologically related" to other mother Earth/Earth goddess cognates, her name might be a borrowing "from another [[Indo-European languages|IE source]]", not inherited as part of the Ancient Greek lexicon.<ref>Mallory, James P.; Adams, Douglas Q. (1997). ''Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture''. London: Routledge. p. 174. {{ISBN|978-1-884964-98-5}}</ref> Burkert says that while Semele is "manifestly non-Greek", "it is no more possible to confirm that Semele is a [[Thraco-Phrygian]] word for earth than it is to prove the priority of the [[Lydian language|Lydian]] {{Lang|xld|baki-}} over [[Bacchus]] as a name for [[Dionysos]]".<ref>[[Walter Burkert]] (1985), ''Greek Religion'', p. 163</ref>[[Martin Litchfield West|M.L.West]] derives the [[Phrygian language|Phrygian]] ''zemelo'', Old [[Slavic language|Slavonic]] ''zemlya'',[[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]] ''zēmē'' from the Indo-European name *dʰéǵʰōm (earth). Semele seems to be a [[Thracian language|Thracian]]  name of the earth goddess from ''gʰem-elā''. The pronunciation was probably Zemelā.<ref>M.L.West, ''Indoeuropean poetry and myth'', p.174-175 Oxford University Press. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXrJA_5LKlYC&pg=PA174  p.174]</ref>

Etymological connections of [[Thraco-Phrygian]] {{Lang|txh|Semele}} with
[[Balto-Slavic]] earth deities have been noted, since an alternate name for Baltic [[Zemyna]] is {{Lang|lt|Žemelė}},<ref>Laurinkiene, Nijole. "Gyvatė, Žemė, Žemyna: vaizdinių koreliacija nominavimo ir semantikos lygmenyje". In: ''Lituanistika šiuolaikiniame pasaulyje''. Vilnius: Lietuvių literatūros ir tautosakos institutas, 2004. pp. 285–286.</ref><ref>Jones, Prudence; Pennick, Nigel (1995). ''A History of Pagan Europe''. Routledge. p. 175. {{ISBN|978-1-136-14172-0}}.</ref> and in [[Slavic languages]], the word {{Lang|sla|seme}} (Semele) means 'seed', and {{Lang|sla|zemlja}} (Zemele) means 'earth'.<ref>Laurinkienė, Nijolė. "[https://www.lituanistika.lt/content/7871 Motina Žemyna baltų deivių kontekste]: 1 d.: Tacito mater deum, trakų-frigų Σεμέλη, latvių Zemes māte, Māra, lietuvių bei latvių Laima, Laumė ir lietuvių Austėja" [Mother-Goddess Žemyna in the context of Baltic deities]. In: ''Liaudies kultūra'' Nr. 2 (2007). p. 12. {{ISSN|0236-0551}}.</ref> Thus, according to Borissoff, "she could be an important link bridging the ancient Thracian and Slavonic cults (...)".<ref>Borissoff, Constantine L. (2014). “Non-Iranian Origin of the Eastern-Slavonic God Xŭrsŭ/Xors" [Neiranskoe proishoždenie vostočnoslavjanskogo Boga Hrsa/Horsa]. In: ''[[Studia Mythologica Slavica]]'' 17 (October). Ljubljana, Slovenija. p. 22. https://doi.org/10.3986/sms.v17i0.1491.</ref>

== Mythology ==
[[File:Sebastiano Ricci - Dionysus (1695).jpg|thumb|left|240px|''Jove and Semele'' (1695) by [[Sebastiano Ricci]]. Galleria degli Uffizi. Florence]]

=== Seduction by Zeus and birth of Dionysus ===
In one version of the myth, Semele was a priestess of Zeus, and on one occasion was observed by Zeus as she slaughtered a bull at his altar and afterwards swam in the river [[Asopus]] to cleanse herself of the blood. Flying over the scene in the guise of an eagle, Zeus fell in love with Semele and repeatedly visited her secretly.<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' 7.110-8.177 {{Harv|Dalby|2005|pp=19–27, 150}}</ref>

Zeus's wife, [[Hera]], a goddess jealous of usurpers, discovered his affair with Semele when she later became pregnant. Appearing as an old [[crone]],<ref>Or in the guise of Semele's nurse, Beroë, in [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Metamorphoses (poem)|Metamorphoses]]'' III.256ff and [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]''167.</ref> Hera befriended Semele, who confided in her that her lover was actually Zeus. Hera pretended not to believe her, and planted seeds of doubt in Semele's mind. Curious, Semele asked Zeus to grant her a boon. Zeus, eager to please his beloved, promised on the [[River Styx]] to grant her anything she wanted. She then demanded that Zeus reveal himself in all his glory as proof of his divinity. Though Zeus begged her not to ask this, she persisted and he was forced by his oath to comply. Zeus tried to spare her by showing her the smallest of his bolts and the sparsest thunderstorm clouds he could find. Mortals, however, cannot look upon the gods without incinerating, and she perished, consumed in a lightning-ignited flame.<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses (poem)|Metamorphoses]]'' III.308–312; [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''Fabulae'' 179; Nonnus, ''Dionysiaca'' 8.178-406</ref>

Zeus rescued the fetal [[Dionysus]], however, by sewing him into his thigh (whence the [[epithet]] Eiraphiotes, 'insewn', of the [[Homeric Hymn]]). A few months later, Dionysus was born. This leads to his being called "the twice-born".<ref>Apollodorus, ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Library]]'' 3.4.3; [[Apollonius Rhodius]], ''[[Argonautica]]'' 4.1137; [[Lucian]], ''Dialogues of the Gods'' 9; compare the birth of [[Asclepius]], taken from [[Coronis (mythology)|Coronis]] on her funeral pyre (noted by L. Preller, ''Theogonie und Goetter'', vol I of ''Griechische Mythologie'' 1894:661).</ref>

When he grew up, Dionysus rescued his mother from [[Hades]],<ref>[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''Astronomy'' 2.5; [[Arnobius]], ''Against the Gentiles'' 5.28 {{Harv|Dalby|2005|pp=108–117}}</ref> and she became a goddess on [[Mount Olympus (Mountain)|Mount Olympus]], with the new name ''Thyone'', presiding over the frenzy inspired by her son Dionysus.<ref>Nonnus, ''Dionysiaca'' 8.407-418</ref> At a later point in the epic ''[[Dionysiaca]]'', Semele, now resurrected, boasts to her sister Ino how Cronida ('Kronos's son', that is, Zeus), "the plower of her field", carried on the gestation of Dionysus and now her son gets to join the heavenly deities in Olympus, while Ino languishes with a murderous husband (since Athamas tried to kill Ino and her son), and a son that lives with maritime deities.<ref>Verhelst, Berenice. ''Direct Speech in Nonnus’ Dionysiaca''. Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill. 2017. pp. 268-270. {{ISBN|978-90-04-33465-6}}</ref>

===Impregnation by Zeus===
[[File:Zeus, Semele und Hera. Flämisch, 3. Viertel 17. Jahrhundert (Erasmus Quellinus II oder Jan Erasmus Quellinus).jpg|thumb|right|300px|Zeus, Semele und Hera. 17th century (Erasmus Quellinus II or Jan Erasmus Quellinus)]]
There is a story in the ''Fabulae'' 167 of [[Gaius Julius Hyginus]], or a later author whose work has been attributed to Hyginus. In this, Dionysus (called Liber) is the son of [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] and [[Proserpina]], and was killed by the [[Titan (mythology)|Titan]]s.  Jupiter gave his torn up heart in a drink to Semele, who became pregnant this way.  But in another account, Zeus swallows the heart himself, in order to beget his seed on Semele.  Hera then convinces Semele to ask Zeus to come to her as a god, and on doing so she dies, and Zeus seals the unborn baby up in his thigh.<ref>[http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae4.html#167 ''Fabulae'' 167.1]</ref>
As a result of this Dionysus "was also called Dimetor [of two mothers]&nbsp;... because the two ''Dionysoi'' were born of one father, but of two mothers"<ref>([[Diodorus Siculus]], ''Library of History'' 4. 4. 5, quoted in the  [http://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/Zagreus.html Theoi.com] collection of Zagreus sources])</ref>

Still another variant of the narrative is found in [[Callimachus]]<ref>Callimachus, Fragments, in the etymol. ζαγρεὺς, ''Zagreos''; see [[Karl Otfried Müller]], John Leitch, ''Introduction to a Scientific System of Mythology'' (1844), p.319, n.5</ref> and the 5th century CE Greek writer [[Nonnus]].<ref>Nonnus, ''Dionysiaca'' 24. 43 ff'' — translation in [http://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/Zagreus.html Zagreus]</ref> In this version, the first Dionysus is called [[Zagreus]]. Nonnus does not present the conception as virginal; rather, the editor's notes say that Zeus swallowed Zagreus' heart, and visited the mortal woman Semele, whom he seduced and made pregnant. Nonnus classifies Zeus's affair with Semele as one in a set of twelve, the other eleven women on whom he begot children being [[Io (mythology)|Io]], [[Europa (mythology)|Europa]], [[Pluto (mother of Tantalus)|Pluto]], [[Danaë]], Aigina, [[Antiope (mother of Amphion)|Antiope]], [[Leda (mythology)|Leda]], [[Dia (mythology)|Dia]], [[Alcmene]], Laodameia, the mother of [[Sarpedon (Trojan War hero)|Sarpedon]], and [[Olympias]].<ref>[http://www.theoi.com/Text/NonnusDionysiaca7.html Nonnus, ''Dionysiaca'' 7.110–128]</ref>

==Locations==
[[File:Rubens - RKDimages, 248173.jpg|thumb|left|340px|Rubens. Jupiter and Semele (Ovid, Metamorphoses, III, 259-309). 
[[Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium]] ]]
The most usual setting for the story of Semele is the palace that occupied the acropolis of [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]], called the ''[[Cadmeia]]''.<ref>Semele was "made into a woman by the Thebans and called the daughter of Kadmos, though her original character as an earth-goddess is transparently evident" according to William Keith Chambers Guthrie, ''Orpheus and Greek Religion'', rev. ed. 1953:56.<!--check this ref.--> [[Robert Graves]] is characteristically speculative: the story "seems to record the summary action taken by Hellenes of Boeotia in ending the tradition of royal sacrifice: Olympian Zeus asserts his power, takes the doomed king under his own protection, and destroys the goddess with her own thunderbolt." (Graves 1960:§14.5). The connection ''Semele''=''[[Selene]]'' is often noted, nevertheless.</ref> When [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] visited Thebes in the 2nd century CE, he was shown the very bridal chamber where Zeus visited her and begat Dionysus. Since an Oriental inscribed cylindrical seal found at the palace can be dated 14th-13th centuries,<ref>Kerenyi 1976 p 193 and note 13</ref> the myth of Semele must be [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] or earlier in origin. At the [[Alcyonian Lake]] near the prehistoric site of [[Lerna]], Dionysus, guided by [[Prosymnus]] or Polymnus, descended to [[Tartarus]] to free his once-mortal mother. Annual rites took place there in classical times; Pausanias refuses to describe them.<ref>Pausanias, ''[[Description of Greece]]'' 2.37; [[Plutarch]], ''Isis and Osiris'' 35 {{Harv|Dalby|2005|p=135}}</ref>

Though the Greek myth of Semele was localized in [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]], the fragmentary [[Homeric Hymn]] to Dionysus makes the place where Zeus gave a second birth to the god a distant one, and mythically vague:
:"For some say, at [[Dracanum]]; and some, on windy [[Icaria|Icarus]]; and some, in [[Naxos, Greece|Naxos]], O Heaven-born, Insewn; and others by the deep-eddying river [[Alpheus (mythology)|Alpheus]] that pregnant Semele bare you to Zeus the thunder-lover.  And others yet, lord, say you were born in Thebes; but all these lie. The Father of men and gods gave you birth remote from men and secretly from white-armed Hera. There is a certain [[Nysa (mythology)|Nysa]], a mountain most high and richly grown with woods, far off in Phoenice, near the streams of Aegyptus..."

Semele was worshipped at Athens at the [[Lenaia]], when a yearling bull, emblematic of Dionysus, was sacrificed to her. One-ninth was burnt on the altar in the Hellenic way; the rest was torn and eaten raw by the votaries.<ref>Graves 1960, 14.c.5</ref>

A unique tale, "found nowhere else in Greece" and considered to be a local version of her legend,<ref>Holley, N. M. “The Floating Chest”. In: ''The Journal of Hellenic Studies'' 69 (1949): 39–40. doi:10.2307/629461.</ref> is narrated by geographer [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] in his ''[[Description of Greece]]'':<ref>Beaulieu, Marie-Claire. "The Floating Chest: Maidens, Marriage, and the Sea". In: ''The Sea in the Greek Imagination''. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016. pp. 97-98. Accessed May 15, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt17xx5hc.7.</ref> after giving birth to her semi-divine son, [[Dionysus]], fathered by [[Zeus]], Semele was banished from the realm by her father [[Cadmus]]. Their sentence was to be put into a chest or a box ({{Lang|la|larnax}}) and cast in the sea. Luckily, the casket they were in washed up by the waves at [[Prasiae]].<ref>{{Cite Pausanias|3|24|3}}-4.</ref><ref>Larson, Jennifer. ''Greek Heroine Cults''. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. pp. 94-95.</ref> However, it has been suggested that this tale might have been a borrowing from the story of Danaë and Perseus.<ref>Larson, Jennifer. ''Greek Heroine Cults''. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. p. 95.</ref><ref>[[Susan Guettel Cole|Guettel Cole, Susan]]. "Under the Open Sky: Imagining the Dionysian Landscape". In: ''Human Development in Sacred Landscapes: Between Ritual Tradition, Creativity and Emotionality''. V&R Unipress. 2015. p. 65. {{ISBN|978-3-7370-0252-3}} DOI: https://doi.org/10.14220/9783737002523.61</ref>

''Semele'' was a tragedy by [[Aeschylus]]; it has been lost, save a few lines quoted by other writers, and a [[Oxyrhynchus|papyrus fragment from Oxyrhynchus]], P. Oxy. 2164.<ref>Timothy Gantz, "Divine Guilt in Aischylos" ''The Classical Quarterly'' New Series, '''31'''.1 (1981:18-32) p 25f.</ref>

[[File:Illustrerad Verldshistoria band II Ill 008.png|thumb|upright=.75|right|Drawing from an Etruscan mirror: Semele embracing her son Dionysus, with Apollo looking on and a satyr playing an ''[[aulos]]'']]

==In Etruscan culture==
Semele is attested with the Etruscan name form [[Semla (mythology)|Semla]], depicted on the back of a [[bronze mirror]] from the fourth century BC.<ref>{{Cite book |last=De Grummond |first=Nancy Thomson |title=Etruscan myth, sacred history, and legend |date=2006 |publisher=Univ. of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology |isbn=978-1-931707-86-2 |edition= |location=Philadelphia, Pa |pages=116–117}}</ref>

==In Roman culture==
In [[ancient Rome]], a grove ''([[lucus]])'' near [[Ostia Antica|Ostia]], situated between the [[Aventine Hill]] and the mouth of the [[Tiber River]],<ref>''[[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum|CIL]]'' 6.9897; R. Joy Littlewood, ''A Commentary on Ovid's ''Fasti'', Book 6'' (Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 159.</ref> was dedicated to a goddess named '''Stimula'''. [[Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher|W.H. Roscher]] includes the name ''Stimula'' among the ''[[indigitamenta]]'', the [[List of Roman deities|lists of Roman deities]] maintained by priests to assure that the correct divinity was invoked in public rituals.<ref>[[Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher|W.H. Roscher]], ''Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie'' (Leipzig: Teubner, 1890–94), vol. 2, pt. 1, pp. 226–227.</ref> In his poem on the [[Roman calendar]], [[Ovid]] (d. 17 CE) identifies this goddess with Semele:
{|
|<poem>
:"There was a grove: known either as Semele's or Stimula's:
:Inhabited, they say, by Italian [[Maenad]]s.
:[[Ino (Greek mythology)|Ino]], asking them their nation, learned they were [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]]ns,
:And that [[Evander of Pallene|Evander]] was the king of the place.
:Hiding her divinity, Saturn’s daughter cleverly
:Incited the [[Latium|Latian]] [[Bacchae]] with deceiving words:"</poem>
|{{Poem quote|text={{lang|la|"lucus erat, dubium Semelae '''Stimulae'''ne vocetur;
maenadas Ausonias incoluisse ferunt:
quaerit ab his Ino quae gens foret. Arcadas esse
audit et Euandrum sceptra tenere loci;
dissimulata deam Latias Saturnia Bacchas
in'''stimula'''t fictis insidiosa sonis:"}}<ref>Ovid, ''Fasti'', 6.503ff.</ref>}}
|}
[[File:Roman - Sarcophagus with the Triumph of Dionysus - Walters 2331 (2).jpg|thumb|left|440px|Roman sarcophagus (''ca.'' AD 190) depicting the [[Roman triumph|triumphal procession]] of Bacchus as he returns from India, with scenes of his birth in the smaller top panels ''([[Walters Art Museum]], Baltimore, Maryland)'']]
[[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]] notes that the goddess is named after {{Lang|la|stimulae}}, 'goads, whips,' by means of which a person is driven to excessive actions.<ref>[[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]], ''[[De Civitate Dei]]'' 4.11.</ref> The goddess's grove was the site of the Dionysian scandal<ref>Described by [[Livy]], ''[[Ab Urbe Condita Libri (Livy)|Ab Urbe Condita]]'' 39.12.</ref> that led to [[Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus|official attempts to suppress the cult]]. The Romans viewed the Bacchanals with suspicion, based on reports of ecstatic behaviors contrary to [[mos maiorum|Roman social norms]] and the secrecy of initiatory rite. In 186 BC, the [[Roman senate]] took severe actions to limit the cult, without banning it. Religious beliefs and myths associated with Dionysus were successfully adapted and remained pervasive in Roman culture, as evidenced for instance by the Dionysian scenes of Roman wall painting<ref>Littlewood, ''A Commentary on Ovid,'' p. xliv. See particularly the paintings of the [[Villa of the Mysteries]].</ref> and on [[sarcophagi]] from the 1st to the 4th centuries AD.

The Greek cult of Dionysus had flourished among the [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscans]] in the archaic period, and had been made compatible with [[Etruscan religion|Etruscan religious beliefs]]. One of the main principles of the Dionysian mysteries that spread to [[Latium]] and Rome was the concept of rebirth, to which the complex myths surrounding the god's own birth were central. [[List of Roman birth and childhood deities|Birth and childhood deities]] were important to [[Religion in ancient Rome|Roman religion]]; Ovid identifies Semele's sister [[Ino (Greek mythology)|Ino]] as the nurturing goddess [[Mater Matuta]]. This goddess had a major cult center at [[Satricum]] that was built 500–490 BC. The female consort who appears with Bacchus in the [[acroteria]]l statues there may be either Semele or Ariadne. The pair were part of the [[Aventine Triad]] in Rome as [[Liber]] and [[Libera (mythology)|Libera]], along with [[Ceres (mythology)|Ceres]]. The temple of the triad is located near the Grove of Stimula,<ref>Littlewood, ''A Commentary on Ovid,'' p. xliv.</ref> and the grove and its shrine ''([[sacellum|sacrarium]])'' were located outside Rome's sacred boundary ''([[pomerium]])'', perhaps as the "dark side" of the Aventine Triad.<ref>Michael Lipka, ''Roman Gods: A Conceptual Approach'' (Brill, 2009), pp. 18–19.</ref>

==In the classical tradition==
In the [[classical mythology|later mythological tradition]] of the [[Christian era]], ancient deities and their narratives were often interpreted allegorically. In the [[Neoplatonic]] philosophy of [[Henry More]] (1614–1687), for instance, Semele was thought to embody "intellectual imagination", and was construed as the opposite of [[Arachne]], "sense perception".<ref>Henry Moore, ''A Platonick Song of the Soul'' (1647), as discussed by Alexander Jacob, "The Neoplatonic Conception of Nature," in ''The Uses of Antiquity: The Scientific Revolution and the Classical Tradition'' (Kluwer, 1991), pp. 103–104.</ref>

In the 18th century, the story of Semele formed the basis for three [[opera]]s of the same name, [[Semele (Eccles)|the first]] by [[John Eccles (composer)|John Eccles]] (1707, to a libretto by [[William Congreve]]), [[Sémélé|another]] by [[Marin Marais]] (1709), and [[Semele (Handel)|a third]] by [[George Frideric Handel]] (1742). Handel's work, based on Congreve's libretto but with additions, while an opera to its marrow, was originally given as an [[oratorio]] so that it could be performed in a [[Lent]]en concert series; it premiered on February 10, 1744.<ref>{{cite book
|last = Dean
|first = Winton
|author-link = Winton Dean
|title = Handel's dramatic oratorios and masques
|year = 1959
|publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]
|location = London
|isbn = 0-19-315203-7
|page = 365}}</ref> The German dramatist Schiller produced a [[singspiel]] entitled ''[[Semele (Schiller)|Semele]]'' in 1782. Victorian poet [[Constance Naden]] wrote a sonnet in the voice of Semele, first published in her 1881 collection ''Songs and Sonnets of Springtime''.<ref>{{cite book
|last = Naden
|first = Constance
|author-link = Constance Naden
|title = The Complete Poetical Works of Constance Naden
|url = https://archive.org/details/cu31924013529205
|year = 1894
|publisher = Bickers & Son
|location = London
|page = [https://archive.org/details/cu31924013529205/page/n168 137]}}</ref> [[Paul Dukas]] composed a cantata, ''[[Sémélé (Dukas cantata)|Sémélé]]''.

== Genealogy ==
{{Argive genealogy in Greek mythology}}

==Astronomical bodies named after her==
*[[Thyone_(moon)|Thyone]]: [[Moons of Jupiter|satellite of Jupiter]]
*[[86 Semele]]: [[asteroid]] of the [[Asteroid belt|main belt]]

==Music named after her==
* [[Nicolaus Adam Strungk|Nikolaus Strungk]], ''Semele,'' opera (1681)
* [[John Eccles (composer)|John Eccles]], ''[[Semele (Eccles)|Semele]],'' opera (1706)
* [[Marin Marais]], ''[[Sémélé]]'', tragédie en musique (1709)
* [[Francesco Mancini (composer)|Fracesco Mancini]], ''La Semele,'' opera (1711)

* [[Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre|Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre]], ''Sémélé'', cantata (1715) EJG 37

* [[Antonio de Literes]], ''Jupiter et'' ''Sémélé,'' opera (1718)

* [[André Cardinal Destouches]], ''Sémélé,'' cantata (1719)
* [[Johann Adolf Hasse]], ''La Semele o sia la richiesta fatale,'' serenata (1723)
* [[Georg Friedrich Haendel]], ''[[Semele (Handel)|Semele]]'', oratorio (1743)
* [[Paul Dukas]], ''Sémélé,'' cantata (1889)

* [[Michel Paul Guy de Chabanon]], ''Sémélé,'' opera (no date given)

==See also==
*[[Gaia]]
*[[*Dʰéǵʰōm]]
*[[Žemyna]]
*[[Mother nature]]
*[[86 Semele]]
*[[Thyone (moon)]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}

==References==
*{{Citation | surname=Burkert | given=Walter | author-link=Walter Burkert | title=Greek Religion | publisher=Harvard University Press | place=Cambridge, Massachusetts | year=1985 | isbn=0-674-36280-2}}
*{{Citation | surname=Dalby | given=Andrew | author-link=Andrew Dalby | title=The Story of Bacchus | publisher=British Museum Press | place=London | year=2005 | isbn=0-7141-2255-6 }} (US {{ISBN|0-89236-742-3}})
*[[Robert Graves|Graves, Robert]], 1960. ''The Greek Myths''
*[[Karl Kerenyi|Kerenyi, Carl]], 1976. ''Dionysus: Archetypal Image of the Indestructible Life,'' (Bollingen, Princeton)
*Kerenyi, Carl, 1951. ''The Gods of the Greeks'' pp.&nbsp;256ff.
*Seltman, Charles, 1956. ''The Twelve Olympians and their Guests''. Shenval Press Ltd.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Semele}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20041210042935/http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Hesiod/hymns.html Homeric Hymns]
*[http://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/Thyone.html On Thyone]
* [https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/category/vpc-taxonomy-000240 The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Semele)]
* {{cite EB1911|wstitle=Semelē|volume=24|page=616}}
*[http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/vwwp/view?docId=VAB7115;chunk.id=d1e9926;toc.depth=1;toc.id=d1e8236;brand=vwwp;doc.view=0;query= Naden's poem 'Semele']

{{Dacia topics}}

{{Authority control}}

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[[Category:Mortal women of Zeus]]
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[[Category:Mythology of Dionysus]]
[[Category:Cult of Dionysus]]
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