Women, Weird and Wonderful: Semele - Thyone, the mother of Dionysos - Bacchus
Stimuli
When young Semele was courted by supreme god Zeus himself, she couldn’t be happier and very soon, a child was on the way. But the idyll was cut short by Hera’s jealous rage. In the form of Semele’s old maid, she sowed doubt in her mind: How could the girl be sure her lover was a god, as he didn’t look like one? So naive Semele demanded proof, and as Zeus had sworn an oath to grant her every wish, he had to unleash the full heat of his divinity. The poor girl was incinerated on the spot. Her son would have been to, but Zeus sewed him in his tigh until he was ready to be born – again. As the wine god Dionysos, the boy traveled the world to spread the joy of drinking, accompanied by his retinue of satyrs and “maenads” (extatic women). And when it was time for him to ascend to the Olympos, he went to the underworld first, and brought with him the mother he never got to know. As the goddess Thyone, she would enthusiasticly encourage the fun and partying. And under her latin name, Stimula, some of us still need her today.
Juno in the form of Beroë, Goltzius, Vlaamse Kunstcollectie
(Meemoo, Vlaams Instituut voor het Archief)
Jupiter and Semele, Jacopo Tintoretto, Museo Civic, Padua, Italy
Did you know?
Dionysos’ (Bacchus’) retinue (or “thiasus”) consisted of Methe, goddess of drunkenness, the satyr Seilenos, as well as of other satyrs and maenads. Cfr. “Cheers” and “Terrible Wisdom”.
“Maenad” literally translates to “mad woman”. The first maenads would have been the nymphs of Mountain Nysa, who had fostered Dionysos as a little baby, cfr. “Starstruck”.
Semele was a daughter of the Theban founders Kadmos (Cadmus) and Harmonia (Concordia) and as such, a predecessor of the notorious Theban royals Oidipous (Oedipus) and his mother/wife Iokaste (Iocaste). Since the founding of Thebes, the royal dynasty had been met with bad luck and disaster, all resulting from the cursed necklace that Harmonia wore on her wedding day. Cfr. “A Poisonous Gift”.
As all gods did, Zeus would have sworn his oath by the underworld river Styx, a primary goddess. The fact that he kept it, regardless of the consequences, made him the protector of all oaths. As a result, purgery was one of the most despised crimes in the ancient world.
Some scholars state that Dionysos’ name could mean “twice-born”.