So spoke the voice from under the swirling waters. But Zeus shaken by the firebarbed sting of desire watched the rosy fingers of the swimming girl. Unrestingly he moved his wandering glance, now gazing at the sparkling rosy face, now bright eyes as full as a cow’s under the eyelids, now the hair floating on the breeze, and as the hair blew away he scanned the free neck of the unclad maid ; but the bosom most of all and the naked breasts seemed to be armed against Cronides, volleying shafts of love. All her flesh he surveyed, only passed by the secrets of her […] by his modest eyes. The mind of Zeus […] and crept down to swim beside swimming Semele. Enchanted he received the sweet maddening spark in a heart which knew it well. Allfather was worsted by a child : little Eros with his feeble shot set afire this Archer of Thunderbolts. Not the deluge of the flood, not the fiery lightning could help its possessor: that huge heavenly flame itself was vanquished by the small fire of unwarlike Paphia ; Little faced the shaggy skin, his magical girdle faced the aegis: the heavy-booming din of the thunderclap was the slave of his love-breeding quiver. The god was shaken by the heart-bewitching sting of desire for Semele, in amazement for love Is near neighbour to admiration.
Zeus could hardly get back to his imperial heaven, thinking over his plans, having now resumed his divine shape once more. He resolved to mount Semele’s nightly couch, and turned his eye to the west, to see when sweet Hesperos would come. He blamed Phaethon that he should make the afternoon season long, and uttered an impatient appeal with […] to set : It is time now for you to lift your torch and lead Zeus to his love—come now, foreshow the illumination of night-ranging Lyaios ! Phaethon is jealous, he constrains me […] in love with Semele […] and grudges my desire ? Helios, you plague me, though you know the madness of love. Why do you […] the whip when you touch up your slow team […] know another nightfall that came very quickly. If I like, I will hide you and the daughter of the mists together in my clouds, and when you are covered Night will appear in the daytime, to speed the marriage of Zeus in haste ; the stars will shine at midday, and I will make rising Hesperos, instead of setting Hesperos, the regular […] of the loves. Come now, draw your own forerunner Phosphoros to his setting, and do grace to your desire and mine ; enjoy your Clymene all night long, and let me go quick to Semele. Yoke your own car, I pray, […] send forth your rays which make the trees and plants to grow, because this marriage foretells the birth of plant-cherishing Dionysos ; rise over the lovely roof of Semele, give light to my desire with the star of the Cyprian, make long the sweet darkness for the wooing of Zeus.” Such was the speech of Zeus, even such commands as desire knows. But when in answer to his eagerness, a huge cone of darkness sprang up from the earth and ran stretching into the heights, bringing a shadow of darkness opposite to setting Eon. Zeus passed along the starry dome of the […] to Semele’s bridal. Without leaving a trace of his footsteps, he traversed at his first bound the whole path of the air. With a second, like a wing or a thought he reached Thebes ; the bars of the […] door opened of themselves to let him through, and Semele was held fast in the loving bond of his arms.
Now he leaned over the bed, with a horned head on human limbs, lowing with the voice of a bull, the very likeness of bullhorned Dionysos. Again he put on shaggy lion’s form ; or he was a panther, as one who begets a bold son, driver of panthers and charioteer of lions. Again, as a young bridegroom he bound his hair with coiling snakes and vine-leaves intertwined, and twisted purple ivy about his locks, the plaited armament of Bacchos. A writhing serpent crawled over the trembling bride and licked her rosy neck with gentle lips, then slipping into her bosom
the circuit of her firm breasts, hissing a wedding tune, and sprinkled her with sweet honey of the swarming bees instead of the viper’s deadly poison. Zeus made long wooing, and shouted Euoi as if the winepress were near, as he begat his son who would love the […]. He pressed love-mad mouth to mouth, and beaded up delicious nectar, an intoxicating bedfellow for Semele, that she might bring forth a son to hold the sceptre of nectareal vintage. As a presage of things to come, he lifted the care-forgetting grapes resting his laden arm on the fire-bringing fennel; or again, he lifted a thyrsus twined about with purple ivy, wearing a deerskin on his back—the lovesick wearer the dappled fawn-skin with his left arm.
All the earth laughed ; a viny growth with self-sprouting leaves ran round Semele’s bed ; the walls budded with flowers like a dewy meadow, at the begetting of Bromios; Zeus lurking inside rattled his thunderclaps over the unclouded bed, foretelling the drums of Dionysos in the night. And after the bed, he saluted Semele with loving words, consoling his bride with hopes of things to come :
My wife, your bridegroom am Cronides. Lift up your neck in pride at this union with a heavenly bedfellow ; and look not among mankind : for any child higher than yours. Danae’s wedding does not rival you. You have thrown into the shade even the union of your father’s sister with her Bull ; for Europa glorified by Zeus’s bed went to Crete, Semele goes to Olympos. What more do you : want after heaven and the starry sky ? People will say in the future, Zeus gave honour to Minos in the underworld, and to Dionysos in the heavens! Then after Autonoe’s mortal son and Ino’s child—one downed by his dogs, one to be killed by a son-slaying father’s winged arrow—after the short-lived son of mad Agaue, you bring forth a son who shall not die, and you I will call immortal. Happy woman, you have conceived a son who will make mortals forget their troubles, you shall bring forth joy for gods and men.”
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