SEMELE
Emerson Spice Hotel Rooms all have a fabulously unique story;
This room is a collapsed temple of Apollo and dedicated to the mother of Dionysus. Mortal daughter of King Cadmus and famously beautiful, Zeus fell desperately in love with her and visited her in the night. Semele fell in love with this unknown and unseen lover’s magic touch and beautiful words of endearment. A jealously scheming Hera brutally put an end to the affair, and the god Dionysus was eventually delivered from the thigh of Zeus. Needless to say, Dionysus and his followers were not fond of Hera and her momma’s boy son, Apollo, and were alleged to have trashed his temples in their revelries, providing the motif of the room.
There are chandeliers which are based on classical temple lighting. A Spanish hand-painted tile mosaic lies among broken marble slabs embedded in the floor. The mosaic is a solar Apollo motif. The bath is built into an archway in the wall and resembles a ceremonial tub spanning two spaces, or, perhaps, two worlds.
