塞梅尔是波塞冬的孙子、底比斯国王卡德摩斯和哈莫尼亚的女儿。通过Harmonia，Semele是阿瑞斯的孙女和阿芙罗狄蒂的表亲，因此是宙斯的曾孙女。

你还记得阿喀琉斯的家谱吗？宙斯曾是他的曾曾曾祖父一次，曾曾曾祖父两次站在阿喀琉斯父亲的母亲一边。勒斯蒂·宙斯甚至想与阿基里斯的母亲西蒂斯交配，但当他听说她的儿子将在名望上超过他的父亲时，他被吓跑了。

考虑到宙斯在英雄和伟大城市的创始人的家谱中影射自己的次数，你会认为他是在单枪匹马地试图在希腊定居。

尽管宙斯已经（大到可以）成为塞梅勒的曾祖父，塞梅勒和宙斯成了恋人。赫拉像往常一样嫉妒，而且像往常一样，出于某种原因，把自己伪装成一个凡人的护士。赫拉以护士贝罗的身份在卡德摩斯国王的底比斯宫廷工作，赢得了塞梅尔公主的信任。当塞梅尔怀孕时，赫拉·贝罗在她的脑海里想出了一个主意。

您可能更熟悉同一主题的另一个变体：

"The most beautiful woman in the world, Psyche, was given as a bride to a mysterious creature (whom she did not know was the son of Aphrodite -- Cupid) as a punishment for detracting from the worship of the goddess Aphrodite. Life was grand even though Psyche was only allowed to visit with her husband in the cover of darkness. Psyche's two jealous sisters did what they could to spoil Psyche's nighttime fun. They told Psyche her husband was probably a hideous monster and that was why he didn't want her to see him. Persuaded that they might be right, Psyche disobeyed the rule set down by her divine husband. To get a clear look at him, she shone a lamp on his face, saw the most beautiful being she could have imagined, and dropped a bit of lamp oil upon him. Burned, he instantly awoke. Seeing that Psyche had distrusted and therefore disobeyed him (actually, his mother Aphrodite), he flew away. For Psyche to regain her gorgeous husband Cupid, she had to placate Aphrodite. This included making a return trip to the Underworld."

就像普赛克嫉妒的姐姐一样，这位曾是嫉妒情妇的女神赫拉也在塞梅尔播下了怀疑和嫉妒的种子。赫拉说服塞梅勒，她不知道向她自称宙斯的人是否是神，除非他以神的形式向塞梅勒展示自己。

此外，塞梅勒不知道宙斯是否爱她，除非他和她做爱的方式和他和妻子赫拉做爱的方式一样。塞梅勒很年轻，怀孕可能会带来一些奇怪的事情，因此，塞梅勒可能应该知道得更清楚，他说服宙斯答应了她的请求（或者更确切地说是赫拉·贝罗的请求）。宙斯为什么答应？他虚荣到想给年轻女子留下深刻印象吗？他是否愚蠢到认为这不会有什么伤害？他知道他能让任何人相信他有义务按照塞梅尔的要求去做吗？他想成为未出生孩子的母亲和父亲吗？我让你决定。

宙斯，展现了他全部的荣耀，杀死了虚弱的人类塞梅尔。在她的身体还没冷却之前，宙斯就把六个月大的未出生的孩子从里面抓出来，缝在他的大腿上。

当这个缝大腿的孩子出生时，他被命名为狄俄尼索斯。在底比斯人中，赫拉散布的谣言坚持认为宙斯不是他的父亲。相反，狄俄尼索斯是塞梅勒的凡人之子，也是凡人。狄俄尼索斯免除了任何诽谤他母亲名誉的凡人，因为他怀疑母亲的性关系是神圣的——尽管我无法理解为什么和风流韵事的宙斯交配会给凡人带来荣誉。更重要的是，在宙斯的允许下，尽职尽责的狄俄尼索斯来到了地狱，将他的母亲塞梅尔从死亡中复活，这样，她就可以像普赛克一样，与她的孩子一起生活在众神之中。