Semele.
1. Dramatic oratorio in 3 parts by Handel to text adapted from Congreve's lib. for Eccles's opera Semele about Semele's love for Jupiter. Comp. 1743. Classified as ‘near opera’. F.p. London (concert) 1744. Contains arias Sleep, why dost thou leave me? and Where'er you walk. F. modern stage p. Cambridge 1925, London 1954, CG 1982. Amer. stage première Evanston, Ill., 1959.

2. Opera in 3 acts by Eccles to lib. by Congreve after Ovid's Metamorphoses. Comp. c.1706. F.p. Oxford 1964; London 1972.

Semele in Greek mythology, the mother, by Zeus, of Dionysus. The fire of Zeus's thunderbolts killed her but made her child immortal.