Aidonian's blog

ij an earlier post about Dionysos I wrote that both Walter Otto and Richard Seaford mention that Semele was once a Goddess from Phrygia but that a 6th century BC turned her into a mortal called Semele, daughter of Kadmos & Harmonia. Later Walter Otto mentions in his book on Dionysos that Semele was turned into a Goddes Thyone when freed from the Hades by her son Dionysos. Considering that Hesiodos and Homeros mention this fact, kind of disproves this theory that Semele was originally a Earth Goddess from Phrygia. The earliest sources we have are that of Hesiodos and Homeric hymns. Considering that the name Dionysos was found in tablets of 12th/13th century BC, makes it clear that He was as much part of the Hellenic world as the rest were, even though He does seem odd when looking at the other Gods. He was killed before birth, saved by Zeus, who placed Him in his thigh before handing him over to Ino and her husband to care for Him. When Hera found that out, she drove them insane that they killed themselves and their children. Semele wasn’t the only one who was turned into a God after death. Polydeukes did the same for this brother Kastor. Kybele did the same for her lover Attis. Herakles was turned into a God after He killed himself because the centaur blood was slowly killing Him. While the cult of Semele Thyone was linked to Dionysos, the one of Herakles wasn’t linked to any other God except for Zeus, who was his father.

The story of the birth of Dionysos

The Theoi Project tells the tales of the birth of Dionysos as following:

“The common story, which makes Dionysus a son of Semele by Zeus, runs as follows: Hera, jealous of Semele, visited her in the disguise of a friend, or an old woman, and persuaded her to request Zeus to appear to her in the same glory and majesty in which he was accustomed to approach his own wife Hera. When all entreaties to desist from this request were fruitless, Zeus at length complied, and appeared to her in thunder and lightning. Semele was terrified and overpowered by the sight, and being seized by the fire, she gave premature birth to a child. Zeus, or according to others, Hermes (Apollon. Rhod. iv. 1137) saved the child from the flames: it was sewed up in the thigh of Zeus, and thus came to maturity. Various epithets which are given to the god refer to that occurrence, such as purigenês, mêrorraphês, mêrotraphês and ianigena. (Strab. xiii. p. 628; Diod. iv. 5; Eurip. Bacch. 295; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 310; Ov. Met. iv. 11.)” The Orphici list Persephone as the mother of Dionysos as Zagreos where Zeus lie with Her. When Hera found out, She sought out the Titans to entreat them to kill the boy. When They did, Zeus killed Them with His lightning and Zagreos was reborn as Dionysos through Semele and from the ashes of the Titans came forth mankind who were stained with the sin of the Titans.

“After the birth of Dionysus, Zeus entrusted him to Hermes, or, according to others, to Persephone or Rhea (Orph. Hymn. xlv. 6; Steph. Byz. s. v. Mastaura), who took the child to Ino and Athamas at Orchomenos, and persuaded them to bring him up as a girl. Hera was now urged on by her jealousy to throw Ino and Athamas into a state of madness, and Zeus, in order to save his child, changed him into a ram, and carried him to the nymphs of mount Nysa, who brought him up in a cave, and were afterwards rewarded for it by Zeus, by being placed as Hyades among the stars. (Hygin. Fab. 182; Theon, ad Arat. Phaen. 177; comp. Hyades.)”

“The inhabitants of Brasiae, in Laconia, according to Pausanias (iii. 24. § 3), told a different story about the birth of Dionysus, When Cadmus heard, they said, that Semele was mother of a son by Zeus, he put her and her child into a chest, and threw it into the sea. The chest was carried by the wind and waves to the coast of Brasiae. Semele was found dead, and was solemnly buried, but Dionysus was brought up by Ino, who happened at the time to be at Brasiae. The plain of Brasiae was, for this reason, afterwards called the garden of Dionysus.” This is a variation of the myth. Which is not unheard of because many city-states had different versions of the myths.