Semele is a person inGreek mythology. She is the daughter ofCadmus andHarmonia. She has a child calledDionysus. Her child grows up and becomes agod.
Semele was a priestess ofZeus. On one day, Zeus saw her as she killed a bull at his altar. She swam in the river Asopus to wash the blood off her body. Zeus turned himself into an eagle and flew over the place where she was bathing. Zeus saw Semele and fell in love with her. He visited her many times, in secret.[1]Zeus' wife,Hera got jealous of the girls Zeus loved. She found out of his love with Semele. Semele became pregnant. Hera turned herself into an old woman. Hera became friends with Semele. Semele told her that her lover was Zeus. Hera pretended not to believe her. She made Semele wonder if her lover was lying about being Zeus. Semele asked Zeus to grant her a wish. Zeus promised on theRiver Styx to give her anything she wanted. She then told Zeus to come to her in his truest form. Zeus asked her not to ask this. But she did not change her choice. Zeus tried to spare her by showing her the smallest of his thunderbolts. Humans cannot look upon the gods without being burned, so Semele died, getting burned in a lightning fire.[2][3]
Zeus rescued Semele's unborn child, Dionysus. He sewed thefetal Dionysus into his thigh. Dionysus grew there until he was ready to be born. This is why Greeks called Dionysus "the twice-born."[4]
When he grew up, Dionysus rescued his mother from underworld. Later, she became a goddess onMount Olympus. She got a new name Thyone. She lived being inspired by her son Dionysus. At a later point in the epic poemDionysiaca that tells the story, Semele, now reborn, boasts about her son to her sister Ino.[5][6][7]
