Dione

Dione was an early goddess of Greek myth, best known as the mother of Aphrodite by Zeus. Homer shows her comforting her wounded daughter on Olympus, and at Dodona in Epirus she was worshipped as the partner of Zeus at his ancient oracle. A second Dione, a daughter of Atlas, was the wife of Tantalus.

Parentage

The sources do not agree on who Dione was. Hesiod lists her among the Oceanids, the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, in the Theogony (Hesiod, Theogony 353). Apollodorus counts her instead among the Titanides, the daughters of Uranus and Gaia, together with Tethys, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe and Theia (Apollodorus, Library 1.1.3), and in another passage places a Dione among the fifty Nereids (Library 1.2.7). The Homeric Hymn to Apollo names her among the greatest goddesses present at the birth of Apollo on Delos, together with Rhea and Themis (Homeric Hymn 3.93).

Dione and Aphrodite

In the Iliad, Dione is Aphrodite’s mother. When Diomedes wounds Aphrodite on the battlefield at Troy, the goddess flees to Olympus and throws herself into her mother’s lap. Dione calls her child, wipes the ichor from her hand, heals her, and consoles her by listing other gods who suffered at the hands of mortals (Homer, Iliad 5.370–417). Apollodorus also says that Zeus had Aphrodite by Dione (Library 1.3.1), and Euripides calls Aphrodite “daughter of Dione” (Euripides, Helen 1098). Hesiod gives a different birth for Aphrodite, from the foam around the severed genitals of Uranus (Theogony 188–206), and does not mention Dione as her mother.

Dione at Dodona

Dione shared a temple with Zeus at Dodona, the oracle in Epirus that Herodotus calls the most ancient in Greece (Herodotus 2.52). Strabo says that the first prophets there were men, but that later three old women were appointed to give the oracles, after Dione had been made a temple-sharer with Zeus (Strabo 7.7.12). The prophetesses were known as the Peleiades, a name connected with doves. In Sophocles, Deianeira recalls that Heracles had been told by the oak at Dodona, through the two Peleiades, how his labors would end (Sophocles, Trachiniae 171–172). Strabo suggests that the name may refer to old women, since in the language of the Molossians and Thesprotians old women were called peliai, a word for pigeons (Strabo, fragment of Book 7). Herodotus gives his own explanation: the Dodonaeans said that a black dove had spoken with a human voice, and he thought that this was a foreign woman whose speech sounded to them like the cries of birds (Herodotus 2.55–57).

Another Dione

Hyginus speaks of a different Dione, a daughter of Atlas, who was the wife of Tantalus. She was the mother of Pelops and of Niobe, who married Amphion (Hyginus, Fabulae 9, 82 and 83).

Dione Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 188–206 and 353; Homeric Hymn to Apollo 93; Homer, Iliad 5.370–417; Euripides, Helen 1098; Sophocles, Trachiniae 171–172; Herodotus 2.52–57; Strabo 7.7.12 and the fragments of Book 7; Apollodorus, Library 1.1.3, 1.2.7 and 1.3.1; Hyginus, Fabulae 9, 82 and 83.

See Also: Oceanus, Tethys, Zeus, Aphrodite, Tantalus, Pelops, Niobe, Atlas