Semele

Theban princess, daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia (Hes. *Theog.* 940–942; Apollod. 3.4.3). Loved by Zeus, who visited her in mortal shape; Hera, disguised as the old nurse Beroe, persuaded her to ask Zeus to appear in his true form (Ov. *Met.* 3.253–315). Zeus, bound by an unbreakable oath to grant her anything, came to her as the unveiled thunderbolt; Semele was incinerated on the spot, and Zeus rescued the six-month foetus — Dionysus — from the ashes and sewed him into his thigh until full term (Eur. *Bacchae* 1–9, 88–104; Apollod. 3.4.3). After Dionysus came of age he descended to the underworld and brought her up to Olympus under the new name Thyone, the only mortal mother raised bodily to divine status (Pind. *Ol.* 2.25–30; Diod. 4.25.4).

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