Chapter XVIII: Semele

Cadmus and Harmonia had two daughters, one of whom was a very beautiful maiden named Semele. Zeus loved Semele and made her his wife secretly, and she was so happy that she wished for nothing else than that the king of the gods should always continue to love her as he did then. But Hera was very angry about it, and she took the form of an old nurse to whom Semele told all her secrets, and came one day into the palace when the nurse had gone to the river to wash clothes. She was the only person who knew that Zeus was the husband of Semele, and Hera, who had taken her form, pretended that she had come back in order to give her some advice about it. She told her that she ought to make trial of Zeus, and beg him to come to her, if it were only for once, in all the glory and splendour with which he surrounded 'himself when he was with Hera, and that if he refused to do so, it would prove that he was not really Zeus, but some mortal who had deceived her. She said this in order to make Semele suspicious and distrustful, and because she wanted to bring about her destruction; and when she had finished talking she went quickly back to Mount Olympus, and no one knew that she had been in the Cadmea.

{62}

Semele did not for a moment believe that her husband was any other than Zeus, but she was dazzled with the thought that she might persuade her lover to come to her surrounded with the glory of the gods, and so she took Hera's advice, and next time that Zeus came to see her, she begged him to swear by the Styx that he would grant her the request she was about to make. Hera had advised her to make him swear by the Styx, because that was the oath which the gods could never break if they bound themselves by it. Zeus swore without any misgiving, for he expected her to wish that suddenly beautiful flowers should spring up all round the Cadmea, or that he should fly with her through the air, or perform some other such miracle; but when Semele begged that he would come to her that evening exactly as if he were coming to Hera, he regretted that he had sworn so rashly, and told her that the fulfilment of such a wish as that, would cost her her life. But Semele thought that he despised her, and did not care to show himself to her in all his godlike splendour, and she persisted in her request; and as he had sworn by the Styx, Zeus was obliged to submit to her foolish will. When the evening came, a terrible rumbling sound was heard in the air, and it thundered and lightened, and Zeus came down from Mount Olympus in the chariot of the gods. He entered the Cadmea, and Semele beheld his countenance glowing with unspeakable beauty and majesty, but the splendour and glory that surrounded him was a sight which no mortal could bear, and she was struck dead by that one look.

{63}