Σεμέλη

Ancient Greek

Etymology

• From the ancient Greek words σείω (seíō, “shake”) +‎ μέλος (mélos, “member, part of the body”), because she was shaking when she saw Zeus coming to her as fire.
• Otherwise from a Thracian *semela, *semla (“earth”) continuing Proto-Indo-European *dʰéǵʰōm (“earth”), thus an Earth Goddess. See also Phrygian Ζεμελω (Zemelō) and ζεμελως (zemelōs, “man”), Lithuanian žemė, Latvian zeme, Bulgarian земля (zemlja), Russian земля (zemlja), and Δημήτηρ (Dēmḗtēr).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /se.mé.lɛː/ → /seˈme.li/ → /seˈme.li/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /se.mé.lɛː/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /seˈme.le̝/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /seˈme.li/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /seˈme.li/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /seˈme.li/

Proper noun

Σεμέλη • (Semélē) f (genitive Σεμέλης); first declension

1. Semele

Inflection

First declension of ἡ Σεμέλη; τῆς Σεμέλης (Attic)

Case / #	Singular
Nominative	ἡ Σεμέλη hē Semélē
Genitive	τῆς Σεμέλης tês Semélēs
Dative	τῇ Σεμέλῃ têi Semélēi
Accusative	τὴν Σεμέλην tḕn Semélēn
Vocative	Σεμέλη Semélē
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Descendants

• Greek: Σεμέλη (Seméli)
• → Latin: Semelē

Further reading

• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[2], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited, page 1,025
• Pokorny, Julius (1959) Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), Bern, München: Francke Verlag