The myth of Semele

Recently I was in the opera in Lille in France for seeing (and hearing, of course) Handel’s beautiful opera Semele. I enjoyed the music a lot, and as often, when I see an opera and follow the text, it makes me think. So it was this time as well. The story of the opera is that Semele, the leading character, has fallen in love with Jupiter, the highest god in the Roman mythology and religion, and that Jupiter is in love with Semele as well. This love makes Semele very happy, but she is suffering from the fact that she is mortal, since she sees this as an insurmountable barrier between herself and Jupiter. Juno, Jupiter’s wife, comes to hear of her husband’s relationship and becomes extremely jealous. She decides to destroy Semele. Juno takes the shape of Semele’s sister Ino, and in this shape she tells Semele that she can become immortal, if she sees Jupiter in full glory. So, the next time that Semele meets Jupiter, she says that she has a request. Jupiter, who is besotted with love, swears by the Styx, the river that separates the earth from the underworld, that he’ll do everything she asks. However, when he hears Semele’s request, he is shocked, and urgently asks Semele to abandon her wish, because he knows that the consequences will be dramatic. However, Semele insists that she wants to see him in his full divine glory. Because of his oath, Jupiter can’t refuse and Semele dies “in the embrace of its incandescent rays”, as the programme of the opera tells us.
I think that we can learn several lessons from this opera, also from the parts I haven’t told here, but when watching the opera, my thoughts gradually moved to the idea: There are limits to your wishes and to what you can like to happen to you. Don’t ignore the warnings of others, for if you don’t, it can lead to your fall. Know your limits.
Handel had derived the story of the opera from one of the classics of the ancient Roman literature: the Metamorphoses, a Latin narrative poem by Ovid written in 8 AD. So, wanting to write a blog about Semele’s story, I went to the original version, as told by Ovid. As it often happens in operas, the content of the libretto is different from the original text. So it is also in this case. The main lines are the same, but in fact, Ovid tells us something else. However, also Ovid’s version of the myth of Semele is today still as relevant as Handel’s interpretation. Also Ovid tells us that Semele and Jupiter are in love with each other, but now Jupiter has made Semele pregnant. When Juno hears about it, she becomes extremely furious, and also in Ovid’s story she wants to destroy Semele. However, now Juno goes to Semele in the appearance of Beroe, a nurse from Epidaurus, who tended Semele. “Beroe” asks Semele whether she really knows that her lover is Jupiter. For how often has it happened that a man has deceived his love, lying to her that he is a god. Then Beroe/Juno says to Semele: “When Jove appears to pledge his love to you, implore him to assume his majesty and all his glory, even as he does in presence of his stately Juno”. The rest of the story goes as in the opera. Semele expresses her wish the next time she meets Jupiter. Jupiter, in love, swears that he’ll fulfil it, anyhow, but despite his effort to mitigate his overwhelming power, Semele’s “mortal form could not endure the shock and she was burned to ashes in his sight.” However, her unborn son, who would become Bacchus, the god of wine and ecstasy, was saved.
Also Ovid’s version of the story of Semele can be given several interpretations, but I think that an important lesson for us is this: Don’t believe in fake news: It can kill you.

Sources
The website of the opera in Lille: https://www.opera-lille.fr/spectacle/semele/
An English translation of Semele’s myth in Ovid’s Metamorphoses: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0028%3Abook%3D3%3Acard%3D251