What is "semele"

Semele \Sem"e*le\, n. [L., fr. Gr. ???.] (Gr. Myth.) A daughter of Cadmus, and by Zeus mother of Bacchus.

daughter of Cadmus and mother of Dionysus, from Latin, from Greek Semele, a Thraco-Phrygian earth goddess, from Phrygian Zemele "mother of the earth," probably cognate with Old Church Slavonic zemlja "earth," Latin humus "earth, ground, soil" (see chthonic).

Semele (; Semelē), in Greek mythology, daughter of the Boeotian hero Cadmus and Harmonia, was the mortal mother of Dionysus by Zeus in one of his many origin myths.

Certain elements of the cult of Dionysus and Semele came from the Phrygians. These were modified, expanded and elaborated by the Ionian Greek invaders and colonists. Herodotus, who gives the account of Cadmus, estimates that Semele lived sixteen hundred years before his time, or around 2000 BCE. In Rome, the goddess Stimula was identified as Semele.

Semele ( HWV 58) is a 'musical drama' in three parts by George Frideric Handel. The story comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses and concerns Semele, mother of Bacchus. Handel also referred to the work as 'The Story of Semele'.

The work is classified as a 'musical drama', but it does fuse elements of opera, oratorio and classical drama, which anticipates the grand operas of the nineteenth century. However, to explain: it is not classed as an oratorio because that term is used for works based on sacred or religious texts - Semele has a secular text. Neither is it opera due to the large number of choruses (there are 10 in Semele; whereas 2 or 3 would be typical of a Handel opera). These chorus are in oratorio anthem style. Likewise, unlike opera, several incidents rely for their impact on the audience's imagination (rather than by direct portrayal), notably Semele's death and insinuations of her sexual relationship with Jupiter.

Semele is an opera by John Eccles. The libretto is by William Congreve, drawing on the Greek myth of Semele. The opera was written in 1707, but was never performed in Eccles's lifetime; in fact, the work was not performed until 22 April 1972 when it was given at St John's, Smith Square in London. There was an earlier semi-staged performance given in The Holywell Music Room June 4-6 1964 by the Oxford University Opera Club and Wadham Music Society, conducted by John Byrt - also claiming to be the 'World Premiere'.

Eccles's work should not be confused with the 1744 opera Semele by George Frideric Handel, also based upon Congreve's libretto. There is also an opera Sémélé, on the same theme, by Marin Marais.

Semele is the mother of Dionysus in Greek mythology.

Semele may also refer to:

• Semele (Eccles), an opera by John Eccles
• Semele (Handel), an opera by George Frideric Handel (given as an oratorio in its first run)
• Sémélé, an opera by Marin Marais
• 86 Semele, an asteroid
• Semele (plant), a genus of flowering plants
• Semele (bivalve), a genus of bivalves
• Radford Semele, a village in Warwickshire, England

Sémélé is an opera by Marin Marais with a libretto by Antoine Houdar de la Motte first performed on April 9, 1709, by the Paris Opera at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal. The opera is in the form of a tragédie en musique with a prologue and five acts.

Master viol player and composer Marin Marais became director of the Paris Opera in 1705 and presented, along with the established works of Jean-Baptiste Lully, two operas of his own during his brief tenure which ended in 1709. His opera Alcyone (1706) proved a successful stage work and was revived several times during the 18th Century. His final opera Sémélé (1709) did not fare as well. Opening during " The Great Frost," an extraordinarily cold European winter that afflicted France particularly hard with food shortages and violent revolts in the streets of Paris, demand for Sémélé (and other new works introduced during this period) was modest. Amid the tumult, Marais retired as Director of the Opera to return to writing viol music. Sémélé disappeared from the repertory for nearly 300 years until a modern performing score published by France's Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles revived interest in the work. Commemorating the 350th anniversary of the composer's birth, the French period-instrument ensemble Le Concert Spirituel, under the baton of Herve Niquet, performed the opera in concert at the Festival International d’Opéra Baroque in Beaune and then in Paris in 2006. The following year, the same ensemble presented Sémélé (minus Marais’ 30-minute prologue, which was cut) in a fully staged production directed by Olivier Simonnet in Montpellier. The opera was presented for the first time outside of Europe by conductor Jeffrey Thomas and American Bach Soloists in San Francisco, August 13-14, 2015.

John Eccles 1707 opera Semele is based on the same myth from Ovid's Metamorphoses, and set to a libretto by William Congreve. This libretto (in expanded form) later served as the basis for yet another opera, by George Frideric Handel (1744). Based on a libretto by de la Motte, Marais' work bears significant narrative differences from the Congreve-based operas. Handel's Semele is a well known standard repertory opera today.

Semele is a genus of flowering plants native to the Canary Islands and Madeira. In the APG III classification system, it is placed in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Nolinoideae (formerly the family Ruscaceae).

Three species are recognized:

1. Semele androgyna (L.) Kunth - Canary Islands and Madeira
2. Semele gayae (Webb & Berthel.) Svent. & Kunkel - Gran Canaria
3. Semele menezesii J.G.Costa - Madeira