Semele\Thyone

  

Semele waiting for Zeus

In Greek mythology, Semele was the daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, and only moral to be the parent of god (Dionysus). Semele was loved by Zeus and Zeus frequently visited her secretly. When Zeus wife, Hera learned of their illicit affair. 
                             Hera appeared to Semele in the form of her friend or aged nurse. Hera pretended not to believe her lover was actually Zeus and planted seeds of doubt in Semele's mind. Semele asked Zeus to grant her wish, Zeus to please his beloved promised on the River Styx to fulfill her dearest wish. Semele wished that he appear before her in his full glory. Zeus begged her not to ask this, she persisted and he was forced by his oath to comply.

Zeus and Semele

                          
 Zeus appeared to her as the god of thunder, and Semele was killed by the fire of lightning. However Zeus saved her child, Dionysus, with whom she was pregnant, by sewing the unborn baby into his thigh. A few month later Dionysus was born. 
                       According to some versions, Dionysus(Zagreus) was son of Zeus and Persephone (zeus and persephone), and was killed by the Titans. Zeus gave Dionysus torn up heart in drink to Semele, who became pregnant this way or Zeus swallow the heart himself in order to beget his seed on Semele. 
                                When Dionysus grew up, he rescued his mother from underworld and she became a goddess of Mt Olympus, with new name Thyone. In Greek mythology, Thyone was described as the goddess of the inspired frenzy which seized the female devotees in the course of the Bacchic orgy.    

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