One of Ovid’s weirdest tales, in which Juno convinces the pregnant Semele to demand her lover Jupiter reveals himself, resulting in her death, caesarian section and his surrogate pregnancy.
Boullogne
Cadmus’ daughter Semele is destroyed by Jupiter’s lightning, but her infant grows into Bacchus. Pentheus is then torn apart by bacchantes, and Cadmus and his wife are turned into snakes.
Not an easy story to paint, Ovid’s clear account has been largely ignored. Because it is now too absurd to show?
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