Syncretism in Context and Christian Imagery in the Myth of Semele

by Julio E. Quiñones Santiago  

The story of Semele has lent itself to be a flexible narrative to represent many stories and facets  of the human experience. It can illustrate the power dynamics in toxic relationships, it can speak  about the danger of vanity and unhealthy ambitions, and it can also serve to reinforce several  religious and paranormal tropes recurrent in different mythologies. The story of a mortal woman  who falls unexpectedly pregnant by a god and whose son, also a god, is worshipped through a cult  that is persecuted for a time until its accepted; is a story not only exclusive to Greek mythology.  The symbol of the “Mother Goddess” or a mortal mother goddess is present in Egyptian mythology  through Isis, in the present story of Semele of Greek origin, but also in Christian theology1. The  similarities between these stories further extend to imagery depicting both Semele (as a mother of  a god, like the Virgin Mary) and later Dionysus (as a baby god and later a young man with fair  features, as Jesus is portrayed in western cultures)2. In the following presentation we will discuss  these symbolic similarities and explore the syncretic aspects of the retellings of these stories.  

Upon examining various sources for the myth of Semele its only normal to find variations and  permutations of the story used by Handel and Congreve. According to “Orpheus and Greek  Religion” by W.K.C. Guthrie, “…Semele was “…made into a woman by the Thebans and called the daughter of Kadmos, though her original character as an earth-goddess is transparently  evident”3. This further adds to the speculation of Semele’s origins and the narrative tropes that  were present in the ancient cultures surrounding Greece and where the inception of these religions  took place. What Congreve’s and Handel’s librettos don’t address is Semele’s ultimate fate,  explored in several other sources4. According to the Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 38 (trans.  Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.), Bacchus or Dionysus, went to Hades to retrieve  Semele, taking her to Olympus, transforming her into the goddess Thyone (with domain over the  religious frenzy her son inspired on his followers). What’s interesting about these different  narratives is the deific attributes subtracted or added to the legend of who Semele was. For  whatever reasons these changes happened, further variations on the myth that already sound  familiar to Christian theology. 

Semele’s initial and consistent claim to divine power is directly related to her connection with  her son, Dionysus. The Virgin Mary’s power and divine Assumption were possible through her  fate as the Mother of God, without which she wouldn’t have had any other claim to said powers,  similarly. In some versions of the myth, Dionysus (first called Zagreb) is the son of Zeus and  Persephone that got dismembered by the Titans. After Zeus serves his heart in a cup to Semele,  she becomes pregnant through a virgin conception and later birth, as the Virgin Mary. This version  further accentuates Dionysus’ name as a “twice-mothered or twice-born” god, as well as further  include the virgin birth to Semele’s myth, which isn’t a self-contained motif in ancient Greece, but  also extends to the Mother of God trope of ancient Egypt with Isis, the Teutonic goddess Hertha (virgin goddess that bore a son from a Spirit, “the Sky”), Chimalman (the Virgin Queen of Heaven that mothered Quetzalcoatl, the crucified saviour of the Aztecs), among other Mother of  gods/Virgin goddesses. 

Further intertextual similarities between this Greek myth and its Christian counterpart, can be  observed in the story of a character completely absent from this opera but related to it:  Bacchus/Dionysus. In Euripides’ The Bacchae, he recounts the vicissitudes Bacchus wreaks upon  the people of Thebes that initially doubted his power as a god and dismissed his kindred to Semele and his divine conception/birth. His followers, the Bacchants, disturb the cities activities and invite  everyone to become entranced in their religious frenzy. King Pentheus sets the guards and the  royal powers against this new cult and imprisons them. Even though the story of Jesus Christ isn’t  identical, it touches several themes in common with the Bacchae. They are both born out of mortal  mothers, according to the majority of Greek mythology, either similar virgin births or the current  and most popular version. Both deities arouse attention from their respective governments, causing  them to be eventually persecuted and having their followers incarcerated. The followers of both  cults were empowered to do miracles or access divine intervention, the Bacchants summoning  water springs, milk and honey from boulders and rocks in the hillside of Thebes.5 Meanwhile the twelve disciples had the power to cast out demons, heal the sick and speak in tongues.   

In the form of early depictions of both  Jesus and Bacchus, even more similarities  arise. Each of them were initially depicted as  youthful and feminine. Representations of  Bacchus were intended to be androgynous  with long hair and fair features.  Depictions of Jesus, on the other hand, used similar features to highlight his purity and innocence.  As time went on, we see Jesus and Bacchus “age” in their depictions, both looking like adult men  with beards or with more muscular bodies. Taking into account that both deities were new to the Greco-Roman pantheons of gods and the new Christian God respectively, we can argue that these ageing depictions take into account the growing following and seriousness people are giving to  both cults. Further coincidences that spurred a progressive social change is the fact that in the  beginnings both mythologies take women into account, in a time where men were the religious  leaders and the only members of society with voice and respect.  

As it was seen in The Bacchae, women were imbued with a manic, religious frenzy by the ritual consumption of wine as part of the Bacchic cult and were a primary part of the worship. In the  New Testament, the figure of Jesus Christ gave importance to disenfranchised people of the time:  poor people, the sick, immigrants, widows and women in general. There are several instances where he gave importance to women based solely on their faith, not on society’s view of them.  Aside from this, a lot of the miracles surrounding his story reflected women, the first who saw him  after the resurrection were women, the women with the blood flow merely touched him and was healed, among other events. These early efforts to empower women could be taken as signs that  bolstered the endurance and continual practice of these very different cults. An obvious and  important final coincidence between both is their relationship with wine (Bacchus the god of wine,  Jesus’ first miracle being the transfiguration from water to wine). Aside from this wine motif being  primarily related to the latter mentioned miracle, as Bacchus, Jesus’ relationship with wine also  uses wine as a ceremonial element of the ritual of holy communion.  

In relation to this parallel relationship between Bacchus and Jesus, many people consider these  similarities to be way of appropriating the pagan motifs and applying them to the nascent Christian  religion in order to make it more palatable and relatable to the Greco-Roman points of view. At  the time, the different cults practicing early Christianity lived in places where they were  persecuted, and their worship was deemed illegal. Keeping this and Christianity’s rise to be the  primary religion of Rome [later western civilization] in mind, it seems to have been an effective  way of practicing their religion stealthily and eventually evangelizing the surrounding regions. This not only extended to Jesus, but later the syncretism around the different pagan gods and saints was done to call pagans into the early catholic church. This extended to feasts, holidays and the  similarities between the Marian worship (recognition of the Virgin Mary as a divine being alongside Jesus) and imagery to other religions’ goddesses (like the Mediterranean cult of Isis)6. It is important to acknowledge the extent Dionysus’/Bacchus’ story is reflected and sequenced in  other mythology to further illuminate the themes present in the main story discussed in the opera,  in relation to the common tropes present in ancient religions. These common threads that connect  these religious practices and stories further comment on the universal themes that affect human  narrative and storytelling. The Virgin Mary and Jesus’ stories can comment on the Semele myth in an intertextual way, to discuss the nature of healthy relationships, power over own actions and  destiny, faith against love and divine purpose. 

Taking into account these historical aspects and their thematic relevancy, it’s no wonder  Handel decided to set Semele’s story as an oratorio for performance at the Covent Garden  Theater in London, for the yearly concert series on Lent. Performing this story, instead of the  expected biblical stories was a bold choice, not necessarily the wrong one. The story of Semele filled with sexual infidelity, lecherous activities and a vengeful sub-plot, didn’t seem to be the  kind of wholesome entertainment expected by its first spectators. Critics were mixed between  those who thought the music was brilliant and those motivated by Handel’s refusal against  writing for the Middlesex Opera or those that considered the piece to be too “gaudy or  immoral”.7 Others on the other hand have interpreted this opera as a parable about social  advancement through sexual favors, and specific targets, in Congreve’s time and in Handel’s.8 

Notes

1 “Assumption of the Virgin Mary,” ARAS (The Archive for Research in Archetypal  Symbolism), accessed October 26, 2020, https://aras.org/concordance/content/assumption virgin-mary. 

2 Riley Winters, “The Roman God Bacchus as a Christian Icon,” Ancient Origins (Ancient  Origins, October 21, 2014), https://www.ancient-origins.net/human-origins-religions/roman-god bacchus-christian-icon-002237.

3 Guthrie, William Keith Chambers, Orpheus and Greek Religion, Princeton, NJ:Princeton University Press, 1993.

4 “SEMELE THYONE,” SEMELE THYONE - Greek Goddess of the Bacchic Frenzy, accessed  October 26, 2020, https://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/Thyone.html.

5 Euripides. Bacchae. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1997.

6 Acharya S D.M. Murdock, “Who Is the Virgin Mary?” Stellar House Publishing, December 10,  2019, https://stellarhousepublishing.com/mary/. 

7 Sadie, Stanley. "Semele (ii)." Grove Music Online. 2002; Accessed 27 Oct. 2020. https://www oxfordmusiconline 

com.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo 9781561592630-e-5000904697. 

8 Ibid.

If we apply this meaning to the opera, we may be able to propose that Handel’s intentions were  to publicly denounce this kind of behavior during such a spiritually inclined and reflective time  as Lent, while presenting an astute comparison to past mythologies and current religious  narratives.