Synopsis of Semele George Frideric Handel Traditional Setting:
Roman Mythic Times The marriage of Semele to Athamas is being
celebrated in Thebes. Semele seeks to postpone the ceremony, for
she is in love with Jupiter. It is interrupted and Semele is
carried off to Cithaeron. In her palace there, Semele revels in
the love of Jupiter, who brings her as companion her sister Ino.
Juno, enraged by her husband's infidelity, calls on the god of
sleep to arouse Jupiter with a dream so erotic that he can
refuse no request that Semele might make; then, in Ino's guise,
she counsels Semele to demand that Jupiter come to her not in
mortal form by as the Mighty Thunderer - only thus, she says,
can Semele secure immortality. This Semele duly does when
Jupiter, eager for her embrace, approaches her. Bound by his
oath to comply with her request, he has to obey; inevitably, she
is consumed by his fire. The people of Thebes mourn her but
celebrate the birth from her ashes of a new deity, Bacchus. Near
the altar is a golden ima