Jupiter and Semele

The last time I took Nik up to Montmartre, we walked from Opera up to Place de Clichy, stopping at the Museum Nationale de Gustave Moreau along the way. Moreau, a symbolist painter of the mid to late 1800's, was heavy into classical mythological and biblical representation. Props to him, I suppose, for not hopping on the impressionist bandwagon which was rolling by the time he reached middle age.

So, a visit to the Moreau museum puts you inside of the painter's house, where you get to see how he reconfigured the 2nd and 3rd floors into a massive atelier. It also puts you in front of one of the trippiest paintings ever, "Jupiter and Semele".

That's the painting in the upper right. The detail is staggering. And here below are a few closeups from inside the work:

The story of Jupiter and Semele comes from the Roman poet, Ovid, whose long narrative verse, The Metamorphoses, presented a sequential telling of the ancient Greek and Roman legends. Here's how the UK's National Gallery website summarizes the story:

The subject is taken from Ovid's 'Metamorphosis'. Semele was a mortal woman beloved by the god Jupiter. Hoping to gain immortality, she begged him to come to her in his godly form, but the divine thunder and lightning destroyed her.

"Divine thunder and lightning" huh? Is that speaking mythologically or euphemistically or both?