| Semele | |
|---|---|
Princess of Thebes Goddess of the Bacchic frenzy | |
| Member of the Theban Royal Family | |
 | |
| Other names | Thyone |
| Abode | Thebes, Mount Olympus |
| Genealogy | |
| Parents | Cadmus and Harmonia |
| Siblings | Autonoë, Agave, Ino and Polydorus |
| Consort | Zeus |
| Children | Dionysus |
Semele (/ˈsɛmɪli/; Ancient Greek: Σεμέλη, romanized: Semélē), or Thyone (/ˈθaɪəni/; Ancient Greek: Θυώνη, romanized: Thyṓnē) in Greek mythology, was the youngest daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, and the mother[1] of Dionysus by Zeus in one of his many origin myths.
Certain elements of the cult of Dionysus and Semele came from the Phrygians.[2] These were modified, expanded, and elaborated by the Ionian Greek invaders and colonists. 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 in 450 BC at the end of the Greco-Persian Wars (499–449 BC) or around 2050 or 1450 BC.[3][4] In Rome, the goddess Stimula was identified as Semele.
- ^ Although Dionysus is called the son of Zeus (see The cult of Dionysus : legends and practice Archived 2007-10-11 at the Wayback Machine, Dionysus, Greek god of wine & festivity, The Olympian Gods Archived 2007-10-02 at the Wayback Machine, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology Archived 2013-10-17 at the Wayback Machine, 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: Hesiod Archived 2008-01-06 at the Wayback Machine calls him "Dionysus whom Cadmus' daughter Semele bare of union with Zeus", Euripides Archived 2008-07-24 at the Wayback Machine calls him son of Zeus, Ovid tells how his mother Semele, rather than Hera, was "to Jove's embrace preferred", Apollodorus says that "Zeus loved Semele and bedded with her".
- ^ Martin Nillson (1967).Die Geschichte der Griechischen Religion, Vol I. C. H. Beck Verlag. München p. 378
- ^ Herodotus (2003) [1954]. Marincola, John (ed.). Histories. Translated by de Sélincourt, Aubrey (Reprint ed.). New York: Penguin Books. p. 155. ISBN 978-0140449082.
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; ...
- ^ Herodotus, Histories, II, 2.145