Semele

Semele (Ancient Greek: Σεμέλη Semelê), or Thyone (Θυώνη Thyônê) in Greek mythology, was the youngest daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, and the mother of Dionysus by Zeus in one of his many origin myths.

• Not thus I burn’d for either Theban dame:
  (Bacchus from this, from that Alcides came:)
  • Homer, Iliad, XIV
  • Alexander Pope, The Iliad of Homer (1715–1720)

• And so, all reverence and all joy to thee,
  Son of the sparkle-smiling Semele!
  • Homeric Hymns, VII. To Dionysus
  • Leigh Hunt, "Bacchus, or the Pirates"
  • The Feast of the Poets, &c. (1814)

• There laved the maid her limbs; her damsels too
  Plunged in the river: swift she skim’d the wave
  With oaring hand, and with experienced skill
  Rear’d high her head unwetted by the tide;
  Laid her bathed bosom level on the flood,
  And with alternate feet behind her threw
  The waters. Nor escaped she, while she swam,
  Jove’s all-discerning eye; but, suddenly
  Appearing from on high, he roll’d around
  His boundless orb of vision: opposite
  Stood Love; and on the father, gazing thus,
  Th’ incomprehensible archer drew in air
  His bow: the flower-wreathed weapon glanced a light
  As the stretch’d bow-string quiver’d: bent the bow,
  Th’ instinctive arrow shrill’d a Bacchic sound:
  Jove was the mark; and, mighty as he was,
  To that poor urchin Love bow’d down his neck.
  The arrow, gliding like a falling star,
  Flew, whispering nuptial sounds, and pierced the heart
  Of Jove, by subtle indirect approach,
  Grazing the bending thigh with wavering wound,
  Aslant; prognostic of the birth to come.
  Then Jove his mutable and rolling eye,
  Moist-swimming with necessity of love,
  Bent on the damsel: like a scourge he felt
  The cestus of her loveliness. He look’d
  On Semele, and panted in alarm,
  Lest he should recognize beside those banks
  Another fair Europa, and again
  His heart throb wild for a Phœnician maid.
  For Semele was moulded in the form
  Of elegance; the beauty of her race
  Shone in her forehead. Jupiter now changed
  His wily form; and, by the virgin smit,
  Soar’d like an eagle o’er Asopus’ flood;
  And bore the image of the eagle’s eye
  With vision keenly radiant; and he left
  The fields of ether and approach’d the banks,
  Measuring with fixed glance that naked shape
  Veil’d by her flowing tresses. Nor the wish
  Was his to gaze at distance, but to gaze
  O’er all the nigh-appearing nymph’s bare limbs
  Of glowing white; nor deem’d he that the scope
  So keen, so vast, of that orbicular eye,
  Roll’d in immensity, and with a glance
  Girding the world, sufficed to gaze on one
  Of unyoked nature, a mere mortal maid.
  The waters, dark from depth, transparent blush’d
  With crimsoning lustre of her rosy limbs;
  The river-mead became an amorous scene,
  Whose waters in voluptuous dalliance flash’d
  Graces like lightnings from their dimpling waves:
  The Naiad, wreathed with nodding sedges, look’d,
  And half-exclaiming held her tranced breath.
  • Nonnus, Dionysiaca, ?
  • Charles Abraham Elton, "Jupiter Enamoured of Semele, while Bathing in the River Asopus"
  • Specimens of the Classical Poets, Vol. III (1814), pp. 315-17

• Brighter art thou than flaming Jupiter
  When he appear’d to hapless Semele;
  • Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, sc. 13

• With my frailty, don’t upbraid me,
  I am woman as you made me;
  Causeless doubting, or despairing,
  Rashly trusting, idly fearing:
      If obtaining,
      Still complaining;
      If consenting,
      Still repenting;
      Most complying,
      Then denying:
  And to be followed, only flying.
  With my frailty, don’t upbraid me:
  I am woman as you made me.
  • William Congreve, "Semele to Jupiter"
  • Semele, an Opera (1710)

• Beneath the sable veil’s disguise,
  Had you not hid your killing eyes,
  It had been worse for me.
  My Nun had then appear’d like Jove,
  I had been light’ning-struck for love,
  And died like Semele.
  • John Gay, "Doggrell’s Stanzas, Upon a Fair Lady making me Happy"
  • The Wife of Bath (1713), act 4

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Semele