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SEMELE

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 616 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SEMELE , in See also:

Greek See also:mythology, daughter of See also:Cadmus and See also:Harmonia, and See also:mother of See also:Dionysus by See also:Zeus. It is said that See also:Hera, having assumed the See also:form of Semele's See also:nurse, persuaded her See also:rival to ask Zeus to show himself to her in all his See also:glory. The See also:god, who had sworn to refuse Semele nothing, unwillingly consented. He appeared seated in his See also:chariot surrounded by See also:thunder and See also:lightning; Semele was consumed by the flames and gave See also:birth prematurely to a See also:child, which was saved from the See also:fire by a miraculous growth of See also:ivy which sprang up See also:round the See also:palace of Cadmus. Dionysus afterwards descended to the nether See also:world, and brought up his mother, henceforth known as Thyone (the raging one), to See also:Olympus. Zeus and Semele probably represent the fertilizing See also:rain of See also:spring, and the See also:earth, afterwards scorched by the summer See also:heat. Another tradition represents See also:Actaeon as the See also:lover of Semele, and his See also:death as due to the See also:jealousy of See also:Artemis. A statue and See also:grave were to be seen in See also:Thebes. See See also:Apollodorus iii. 4; See also:Pausanias 24. 3, ix. 2.

3; See also:

Ovid, Metam. iii. 26o.

End of Article: SEMELE

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SEMAPHORE (Gr. oiva, sign, and (Popa, carrying, fro... 		[next]
SEMEN ROMANOVICH VORONTSOV (1744–1832)

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