Semele

Mortal Theban princess, third daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia (greek_harmonia, whose notes name 'Semele'). Loved by Zeus; deceived by Hera, she was destroyed by his thunderbolt and the unborn Dionysus was sewn into Zeus's thigh (the twice-born god). Later raised from Hades by Dionysus and deified as Thyone. Authored as mortal — the paradigmatic mortal consort of Zeus and the canonical Theban princess, matching the existing sister greek_autonoe; her divinity is a post-mortal deification. DISTINCT from the existing thracian_semele (the Thraco-Phrygian earth-mother Zemele), which is a separate tradition/figure.

Parentage

• mother: HarmoniaApollodorus, Library 3.4.2 (primary)
• father: CadmusApollodorus, Library 3.4.2 (primary)

Domains

• motherhood and birth
• apotheosis and Olympian honour

Powers

• Bears Dionysus to Zeus

Epithets

• Θυώνη — Thyone (the raging/inspired one)Diodorus Siculus 4.25.4; Pindar, Olympian 2.26 (primary)
• Σεμέλη κεραυνία — thunder-stricken SemelePindar, Olympian 2.25 with scholia (Semele slain by the keraunos); Walter Burkert, Greek Religion (1985), on the Theban Semele (secondary)

Relations

• sibling: AutonoeSister (one-way edge to the pre-existing figure).Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.4.2 (primary)
• sibling: InoSister; after Semele's death Ino and Athamas reared the infant Dionysus.Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.4.2-3 (primary)
• sibling: AgaveSister; the Cadmeid daughters who, per the Bacchae, doubted Semele's union with Zeus.Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.4.2 (primary)
• sibling: Polydorus of ThebesBrother; king of Thebes.Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.4.2 (primary)
• mother of: Dionysus (Olympian god of wine and ecstasy, by Zeus) · GreekHesiod, Theogony 940-942; Euripides, Bacchae 1-9 (primary)
• father: CadmusApollodorus, Library 3.4.2 (primary)
• mother: HarmoniaApollodorus, Library 3.4.2 (primary)
• counterpart of: SemeleTradition-specific counterpart; this link does not transfer parentage.Orphic Hymns 43 (Taylor; modern 44) (primary)

Sources

• existence and parentage (daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, mother of Dionysus by Zeus): Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.4.2-3; Hesiod, Theogony 940-942; Euripides, Bacchae 1-12 (primary)
• death by Zeus's thunderbolt and deification as Thyone: Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.253-315; Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.5.3; Diodorus Siculus 4.25.4 (primary)