through suffering. There lives amongst the Olympians, Semele with-the-flowing-locks, who died in the roar of the thunder.1 But Pallas loves her ever and Father Zeus much, and her child Kissophoros [the ivy-bearer]" loves her.' Here we have the Phoenician parentage of Dionysos as in the Theologers, with a notice of the death and deification of Semele, who finally appears as the Pambasileia or Universal Queen.3 Semele, according to Professor Ruskin, is the cloud with the strength of the vine in its bosom, consumed by the light which matures the fruit; the melting away of the cloud into the clear air at the fringe of its edges being exquisitely rendered by Pindar's epithet for her, "Semele with-the-stretchedout-hair." This is elegantly imaginative, and may be accepted as being true as far as it goes; but it is only a mikrokosmic view of the subject. According to a somewhat wider concept, we find that the myth of Koronis precisely corresponds with the legend of Semele. Like Dionysos, Asklepios is born amongst and rescued from the flames; in other words, the light and heat of the sun which ripen the fruits of the earth, scorch and consume the clouds and the dew, or banish away the lively tints of early morning.'5 Semele here becomes a kind of impersonation of the more delicate phenomena of morning, dawnlight, clouds, and dew, and generally of the frail yet material supports of the infant earthvigour of her son. But our concept of the daughter of Kadmos, the Man-of-the-East, the Ogygian, or Man-ofAncient-Times, and of Harmonia, who appears in the myth dressed in a robe studded with stars and wearing a necklace representing the universe,' our idea of the mother of the mighty Dionysos must be far wider even than this. It will include these, as the greater does the less, but they are in themselves quite inexhaustive of the meaning of the ancient legend. The cycle of Dionysiak myths, as noticed,1 appears to have had a peculiar fascination for Diodoros, who made great but futile efforts to unravel them. After having rightly explained that Demeter was usually used by the ancient poets and mythologists as a name for Mother-Earth, and having alluded to the sacred rites, which it is not lawful for any ordinary person to treat of,' he continues, 'And likewise they refer the birth of Dionysos from Semele to the beginnings of nature, having shown that the earth was named Thyone by the ancients; and the reason of the nomenclature, Semele from being splendidly worshipped (semnê), and Thyone from the sacrifices (thyomenôn) and offerings made to her.'2 Declining these etymologies, but accepting the view of the ancients on the matter, we find that the concept of Semele has greatly enlarged. She is not now merely the more delicate phenomena and accompaniments of morning that assist in expanding the strength of the grape-god; but the earth itself, and as such is an equivalent of Demeter. We have no difficulty, therefore, in understanding how Demeter herself appears in some legends as the mother of Dionysos. But we have even yet hardly reached the root idea of Semele, for Demeter, again, is a derivative concept, representing the earth in a state of order and civilisation, and as such she is Thesmophoros, the Law-giver, the establisher of agriculture, marriage, and the arts of life. But over her is flung the vast shadow of the huge and unanthropomorphic Gaia, the Earth without form and void, colossal and chaotic, as it seemed to the Hebrew prophet when he exclaimed, I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me.' At the ་ 1 Sup. I. 2 Diodoros, iii. 62. bottoms of the mountains, at the very basis and root of material phenomena, in 'the beginnings of nature,' to use the expression of Diodoros, and in the very place where we should expect to find the mother of the kosmogonic Dionysos and daughter of the universe Harmonia, clad in her starry robe,1 we discover Semele or Themele, themethlon, that which is first laid or placed, the foundation,2 i.e. the foundation of materiality; the expanding might of which, as it Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees, bounds in the dance, boils in the blood, flows in the song, echoes in the shout, is her son Dionysos, the kosmic spirit of the world.3 She is the vital centre of that growth-power of which her son Dionysos, Karpios or Erikepaios, is the personified incarnation; and so when Zagreus, mystic son of Zeus and Persephone, Queen of the Under-world, another phase of Semele the Foundation-ofthings, is at the instigation of the jealous Here slain by the Titanes, his heart is given to Semele; that is, the Earth receives from Zeus the principle of vitality, the seeds of being, and Zagreus who was dead becomes alive again in the person of Dionysos. That Pindaros really entertained this view of the kosmic nature of Dionysos is made absolutely certain by a very valuable passage in Ploutarchos, who wrote with the Theban Bard's Works before him. He observes, That the Hellenes consider Dionysos as the lord and first cause not only of wine but 1 Inf. X. ii. There is also a legend which says that Dionysos was born of Zeus and Gê (Earth); from Earth called Themele, because all things are so to speak placed in it as a foundation, which by the change of one letter, the S, the poets call Semele.' (Apollod. Frag. xxix. apud Ioan. Lyd. Cf. Hesychios in voc. Semele. Vide also remarks on the Hebrew Semel, inf. VII. ii.) 3 Cf. Welcker, Götterlehre, i. 536; Donaldson, Theatre of the Greeks, 20. Cf. Grote, History of Greece, i. 19; Mythology of the Aryan Nations, ii. 294; inf. IX. vi. Zagreus. But of the whole humid nature,1 Pindaros is an excellent witness when he says, "Dionysos, the much-cheering,2 increases the nourishment of trees, the holy splendour of the later summer."'4 It is unknown from what Work of the Poet the quotation is taken, but the whole passage is peculiarly valuable as showing the general view of the earlier writers on the subject; and, in so doing, as absolutely disproving the theory which regards Dionysos as a simple wine-god. Ploutarchos speaks of the fact as well known, and could evidently with equal facility have quoted a dozen passages to illustrate it. Truly, says D'Hancarville, that amongst the Hellenes Dionysos was quite as much god of water' as 'god of wine.' how and why does Semele, the foundation of materiality, die in the thunder's roar?' Is her fate merely the scorching of clouds and dew by the rays of the morning sun? This view, although perhaps true in itself, yet seems quite inadequate as a full explanation of the myth. Zeus, the Most High, draws near to Semele the Foundation-of-things; and amid thunders and convulsions is born Dionysos, the Spirit-of-the-material-world. This is the gist of the myth; the jealousy of Here, and the stratagem by which she procures her rival's death, are mere afterthoughts springing from the introduction of the Semeleian myth in anthropic form into Aryan regions. There appears to be an occult reference in the legend to a state of pristine chaos from which was produced the form, beauty, and order of the material world, itself a combination of Semele and Dionysos, for the injury to Semele is merely temporary. She becomes immortal, and as Thyone the Inspired, mother of Dionysos Thyoneus, is conducted by her son to heaven. The following 1 Vide inf. VIII. i. Phlias. Bergk. Poet. Ly. Grae. i. 340. 6 Arts de la Grèce, i. 223. 7 Ovid. Metam. iii. Fab. 4, 5. Apollod. iii. 4, 5. 8 extract from the Phoenician Kosmogony of Sanchouniathon, may perhaps to some extent illustrate this very obscure myth 1: 'When the air began to send forth rays of splendour, through the fiery influence both on sea and land, there were winds and clouds and mighty flowings and torrents of heavenly waters. And when they were separated and carried out of their proper place by the fiery influence of the sun and all met again in the air and were dashed together, thunders and lightnings ensued.'" The sound arouses certain mysterious intelligent existencies named Zophasemim or the sentinels of heaven,' as the great constellations or Decans of the Chaldees were called,' and the orderly procession of material phenomena commences. The external creative force (Zeus) shoots fiery splendour on sea and land, themselves emerging into form from the pristine Mot, Mokh, or Mud, the foundation of things (Semele), which has been personified as a Phoenician sage Mochos. Strange chaotic convulsions follow, and amidst the roar of their thunder and the lightning flashes of the enkindling power the earth, temporarily eclipsed in a transition period of Tohuand-Bohu, passes through it into a state of augmented splendour, a resurrection vitality also typified by the changes of the seasons; and Semele in restored beauty stands forth, the All-mother, the All-queen, combination of Demeter and Persephone, Thyone the Inspired; breathing of the Invisible God, and an early impersonation and concept of that Kingdom-of-the-Heavens spoken of by Apostles and Evangelists, and which appeared to the Seer of Patmos in its developed splendour as a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet,' the 3 Bunsen, Egypt's Place, iv. 182. 4 Cf. ibid. 176. Hom. Hymn, xxvi. 21; Pind. Pyth. iii. 176. |