Zeus, the supreme god of the universe, was once again having one of his famous extra marital affairs and this time, the target of his lust was Semele who was the daughter of the king of Thebes. The god Zeus would come down to earth hidden from his wife just to sleep with Samele and unlike other affairs of his, Zeus appeared before this mistress in the form of a mortal but without denying his identity as the god of Olympus and so Samele had no reason to distrust the god as only a divinity could provide so many nights of sublime pleasure.
One day when Samele woke up, she felt the god's warmth on her sheets and the princess thought that he must have left just a moment before she woke up and with a radiant smile of someone who had spent a wonderful night, Samele got up from her bed and called her servant and the old maid came over to help her mistress get dressed as she was bragging about her romantic adventure so much that she didn't even suspect that the old maid wasn't herself but rather the goddess Hera disguised as a maid, but the goddess swallowed her anger, tired of continuously being humiliated by Zeus, she organized a plan to punish the princess and so the false maid tried to plant seeds of doubt in Samele's mind about the identity of her lover and she told her that because the princess had so little experience that of course she would be dazzled by her boyfriend's ability and so she advised her to be less impressed as this talent could be found in any capable man and so the princess's doubts increased but she chose to continue to believe in her lover but unable to keep the doubts in her mind in check, she asked the old maid to clarify that uncertainty and the maid told her that there was a simple way and that was to ask her lover to show her his true form and so Samele gullibly believed that it was an excellent idea.
And so, in the evening when her lover returned, Samele told him that she had a request and Zeus assured her that nothing was out of his reach and that she could ask for anything that she wanted. Satisfied with her lover's promise, Samele asked her lover to show himself in his true form, in all his glory. Zeus was heartbroken to hear his lover's request but since he had sworn to grant her anything, he could not refuse and so the great god revealed all his glory before the young princess and she marveled at the radiance of her lover but the brightness and heat emanating from the god became stronger and stronger, burning the poor mortal, in flames and feeling death draw nearer, the poor girl thought about her stupidity and how she let that accursed old maid of hers plant the seed of distrust in her heart.
The unfortunate princess turned into a pile of ashes, but Zeus noticed that there was life among the ashes, it was a baby that had not yet been fully formed and so Zeus cut open his thigh, making a slit and placed the little fetus inside, as the od had already given birth to Athena who had emerged from his head, why not give birth to another child, he thought. Sometime later, the child was born, the only god of Olympus who was the son of a mortal, and so to avoid Hera's wrath, Zeus asked Hermes to secretly deliver the child to his aunt Eno and Atamas who was the king of Botia, and so that child went on to become one of the best-known gods in Greek mythology and his name was Dionysus, the god of wine and Ecstasy.