Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

Death by lightning as euthanasia 27
The critical moment in her myth is variously reported by the
m\'thographers. According to Apollodoros\ Semele begged Zeus to
appear to her in the same form in which he had wooed Hera. Thereupon
Zeus came to her chamber on a chariot with lightnings and
thunders, and hurled a bolt. Semele in terror gave untimely birth
to Dionysos and died. Other accounts say nothing about the
chariot : Semele could not support the sight of Zeus the god of
thunder and lightning, and was killed by it^. Others, again, are more
precise. Semele was burnt", or actually struck by a thunderbolt and
brandishing a thunderbolt in his right hand and grasping a sceptre in his left. Semele
flees to right, looking back, her right hand extended towards Zeus in an attitude of
supplication, her left holding a flower. Behind Zeus a female companion of Semele,
likewise holding a flower, escapes to left. (6) Two other companions of Semele hasten,
from left and right, to announce the event to her father, Kadmos. (4) A kratilr (lid lost)
in the Louvre (G 412), past the climax of the fine style (460—440 B.C.) and largely
repainted (H. Heydemann Dionysos^ Gebiiri p. 8 n. 21): [a] Zeus, with bay-wreath and
chlaiiiys, strides to right, brandishing a thunderbolt in his right hand and grasping a
sceptre in his left. Semele flees to right, looking back ; she lifts her chiton with her right
hand and raises her left towards her shoulder. Behind Zeus a female companion of
Semele escapes to left. Before Semele stands her white-haired father, his right hand
raised in astonishment, his left holding a stafi". [b) Four men and women conversing.
The type attested by these vases begins as a mere combination of the early striding
Zeus [supra \. 84 ff. figs. 52— 54) with the early running maiden. The eagle of Zeus is
omitted, and his left hand either holds a sceptre [infra % 3 (c) iv (a)) or grasps the shoulder
of Semele. Next, under the influence of flower-plucking scenes (Europe, Thaleia, etc.),
Semele is given a flower, while a comrade likewise holding a flower forms a suitable
pendant. Finally, the group is amplified by the introduction of Kadmos and other figures,
either on the reverse or on the obverse of the vase.
Vases that represent Zeus pursuing the female with lowered bolt cannot be assumed
to depict the Semele-episode; for the bolt may be a mere attribute. E.g. an ajnphora
formerly in the possession of the Neapolitan dealer Barone (J. de Witte 'Jupiter at
Semele ' in the Rev. Arch. 1862 ii. 29 f. fig. Zeus, with chlamys worn shawl-wise, holding
a thunderbolt in his lowered right hand, a sceptre in his left, pursues towards the right
a running female, who looks back with gestures of alarm), a large hydria from Vulci now
at Paris (De Ridder Cat. Vases de la Bibl. Nat. ii. 331 no. 439 confused description,
P. Milliet—A. Giraudon Vases peints du Cabinet des Aledailks b' Antiques [Bibliothi-que
Nationale) Paris 1891 vi^ classe, xi^ serie ii pi. 75 = my fig. 13 Zeus, with myrtle (?)-wreath
and chlamy's worn shawl-wise, holding a thunderbolt in his lowered left hand, advances
towards the left and seizes with outstretched right hand a running female, who looks back
with gestures of alarm and supplication), and other vases noted by H. Heydemann
Dicnysos' Geburt p. 7 n. 18.
The brown paste at Berlin usually cited in this connexion (G. Winckelmann Monumeuti
atitichi inediti"^ Roma 182 1 ii. i. 2 f. pi. i, T. Panofka Dionysos und die Thyaden
(extr. from the Abh. d. berl. Akad. 18^2 Phil. -hist. Classe p. 377 fif.) Berlin 1853 p. 36 fif.
pi. 3, 4, Miiller—Wieseler Denkm. d. alt. Ktinst ii. 24 pi. 3, 46", C. W. King Antique
Gems and Rings London 1872 i. 483 fig. =Sir John Sandys The Bacchae of Euripides^
Cambridge 1892 pp. cxxxiif., i fig., etc.) represents neither Zeus nor Semele : see Furt-
wangler Geschnitt. Steine Berlin p. 227 no. 6219 pi. 42, id. Ant. Geinmen i. pi. 36, 20,
ii. 1 75, iii. 416 n. 2.
^ Apollod. 3. 4. 3.
- Diod. 3. 64, Lact. Plac. in Stat. Tlieb. i. 12, 2. 292, Myth. Vat. 2. 79.
3 Yiy^.fab. 179, Lact. Plac. in Stat. Theb. 4. 673, Myth. Vat. i. 120.