Zeus the Thunderer loved the beautiful Semele, the daughter of the Theban king Cadmus. One day he promised her to fulfill any of her requests, no matter what it was, and swore to her this with the unbreakable oath of the gods, the sacred waters of the underground river Styx. But the great goddess Hera hated Semele and wanted to destroy her. She told Semele:
- Ask Zeus to appear to you in all the greatness of the thunder god, king of Olympus. If he really loves you, he will not refuse this request.
Hera convinced Semele, and she asked Zeus to fulfill this very request. Zeus could not refuse Semele anything, because he swore by the waters of the Styx. The Thunderer appeared to her in all the greatness of the king of gods and men, in all the splendor of his glory. Bright lightning flashed in the hands of Zeus; Clashes of thunder shook the palace of Cadmus. Everything around flashed from the lightning of Zeus. The fire engulfed the palace, everything around shook and collapsed. Semele fell to the ground in horror, the flames burned her. She saw that there was no salvation for her, that her request, inspired by Hero, had ruined her.
And the dying Semele had a son, Dionysus, a weak child unable to live. It seemed that he, too, was doomed to die in the fire. But how could the son of the great Zeus die? From the ground on all sides, as if by a magic wand, thick green ivy grew. He covered the unfortunate child from the fire with his greenery and saved him from death.
Zeus took the saved son, and since he was still so small and weak that he could not live, Zeus sewed him into his thigh. In the body of his father, Zeus, Dionysus grew stronger, and, having grown stronger, was born a second time from the thigh of the thunderer Zeus. Then the king of gods and people called his son, the swift messenger of the gods, Hermes, and ordered him to take little Dionysus to Semele’s sister, Ino, and her husband Atamant, king of Orchomen, they were to raise him.
The goddess Hera was angry with Ino and Atamant because they took in raising the son of Semele, whom she hated, and decided to punish them. She sent madness to Atamant. In a fit of madness, Atamant killed his son Learchus. Ino barely managed to escape death with her other son, Melikert. The husband chased after her and was already overtaking her. There is a steep, rocky seashore ahead, the sea is roaring below, a mad husband is overtaking from behind - Ino has no salvation. In despair, she threw herself and her son into the sea from the coastal cliffs. The Nereids took Ino and Melikert into the sea. The teacher of Dionysus and her son were turned into sea deities and since then they have lived in the depths of the sea.
Dionysus was saved from the mad Atamant by Hermes. He transported him in the blink of an eye to the Nisei Valley and gave him there to be raised by the nymphs. Dionysus grew up to be a beautiful, powerful god of wine, a god who gives people strength and joy, a god who gives fertility. The teachers of Dionysus, the nymphs, were taken by Zeus as a reward to heaven, and they shine on the dark starry night called Hyades, among other constellations.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru