i. Her midwife was the lightning bolt that killed her.

ii. As for Semele, her memory will be vindicated when I appear.

iii. Oh, Thebes, that gave birth to Semele, the mother of God.

xi. My god was born from the Joy of a dying woman.

Semele

And to the house of his mother, to which the glory of heaven had descended, he brought not only blessedness but suffering, persecution, and destruction. But his mother, Semele, who had suffered a death in flames in her marriage with the god of the storm, was given leave to ascend from her grave to the gods of Olympus.

She was one of the four daughters of King Cadmus of Thebes. "Peleus and Cadmus," says Pindar, "were the most fortunate of all mankind; for at their weddings the muses sang, the gods banqueted at their tables, they saw the kingly son of Kronos sitting on chairs of gold and received gifts from them... But there came a time when Cadmus was made joyless by the bitter sufferings of his daughters - three of them; but to the fourth, the beautiful Thyone [Semele], came father Zeus, to lie with her on the bed of love." And in another passage: "Great misfortunes the daughters of Cadmus suffered; but the weight of the sorrow sank before the excess of the good. Felled by lightning, Semele lives in the circle of the Olympians, and Pallas loves her dearly, and father Zeus; and her son loves her, who wears the ivy; and they say that in the sea, too, among the daughters of Nereus, Ino was allotted life imperishable for all time."