Semele was a daughter of Kadmos, the first king of Thebes. Semele was famous for her extraordinary beauty and grace, which even Zeus, the King of the gods, couldn't resist and filled him with the desire to mate with the princess.

Soon Semele became pregnant of Zeus, but Zeus' jealous wife Hera begrudged Semele's pregnancy and desired by all means to destroy her... so one day she planted seeds of doubt in Selmele's mind, making her all of a sudden become very suspicious about Zeus' divine nature.

At that time, Zeus was deeply in love with Semele and to please her, he swore upon the sacred river of the gods Styx to make any wish of Semele true. Semele requested from Zeus to reveal all his dignity among his lightnings and his thunderbolts.

Zeus first tried to hold back but without success, for he had already made a sacred oath and could do nothing but obey Semele's order and reveal himself. Immediately, lightnings appeared and everything Zeus' thunderbolt touched was shaking and moving, wrapped in fire; undoubtedly, Zeus was the Supreme God of Mount Olympus.

Fires were also wrapped around the beautiful Semele, burning her body to death, for any mortal who would sight a deity in all his glory was cursed to die. By that time, Dionysus was still in Semele's womb, however, Zeus managed to rescue the infant by binding him in his thigh. He then handled Dionysus to his messenger Hermes, who brought the baby to Semele's sister Ino and her husband Athamantas; this was the couple Zeus had chosen to raise his newborn child.