REFLECTIONS OF OVID IN SEMELE'S MIRROR

Abstract

THE THIRD and final act of Handel's Semele reaches its climax with Jupiter's epiphany as a god of lightning and thunder and with the resulting fiery death of mortal Semele. The eighteenth-century man of letters would of course expect just this conclusion, because he would recognize it as the conclusion of the myth of Semele as narrated in Ovid's Metamorphoses.' To be sure, much of the libretto written by William Congreve and adapted most probably by Newburgh Hamilton originates in the Ovidian narrative.2 In that a jealous Juno despises Zeus's mortal paramour, in that Juno disguises herself as confidante to Semele and approaches her in her private chambers, in that Juno convinces Semele to request of Jupiter a glimpse at his most divine form, and in that Semele makes just this request and perishes as a result, Congreve clearly derived the rudimentary plot structure of the oratorio/opera from the Semele material in Ovid's Book 3.3 But the matter goes beyond these obvious Ovidian borrowings. Congreve (and Hamilton and Handel) borrowed from passages elsewhere in Ovid's Metamorphoses and from other authors, and an examination of the subtle and complex methods he used also helps to pinpoint a very specific source for one of the more intriguing and problematic passages in the opera-that non-Ovidian scene in which a self-adoring Semele gazes into a mirror and sings the challenging and melismatic aria 'Myself I shall adore'. We begin with the curious Somnus passages, the plot and avowed purpose of which we should review briefly. At the beginning of Act II, Juno swears to send Semele down to Hades. Her henchwoman and partner in crime, Iris, warns her, however, that the path to hell is guarded by two fierce dragons who have a thousand eyes and never sleep. Juno never falters, for she