Dione (mythology)

Dione on his throne represented in a coin.

In Greek mythology, Dione (in ancient Greek Διώνη, 'divine queen') is an ancient pre-Olympic deity. Dione's Indo-European name is actually more of a title: the "Goddess," etymologically a feminine form of Zeus. The form Dione derives from the Mycenaean *Διϝωνᾱ (Diwōnā), basically a feminine form of the dative of the form Ζεύς (Zeús), which is declined as Διός (God ), which in turn derives from the word Διϝός (Diwós), meaning “of Zeus”.

In Dodona, Dione was venerated with Zeus as goddess of the clear sky. The Diana of Roman mythology has a similar etymology, but is otherwise unrelated to Dione. In the very ancient oracle of Zeus at Dodona, Dione rather than Hera was considered the wife of Zeus, as many of the surviving votive inscriptions show. Some authors identify Dione with Rhea, with Themis and with Leto. As for her affiliation, there is no consolidated tradition, but she is always described as the daughter of a primitive god, Dione being one of the Titanides (daughter of Uranus), Oceanides (daughter of Ocean), or Atlantis (daughter of Atlante).

Dione in Homer

This vaguely present goddess takes her most concrete form in book V of Homer's Iliad as the mother of Aphrodite. In this version, the love-goddess's father is Zeus himself, and also tells of Aphrodite who took refuge in her mother's arms when she was wounded by Diomedes. Indeed, Dione travels to Aphrodite's side after being injured in battle while she was protecting her favorite and her son, Aeneas. She heals her wounds and to comfort her, she tells him some parables about the damage other gods suffered during a battle, such as Ares, Hera or Hades. In this episode, Dione seems to be the equivalent of Rhea, the Mother of the Gods, whom Homer also placed on Olympus. In works after the Iliad, Aphrodite herself is sometimes called Dionea or even Dione. Some Homeric authors also make her the mother of Amphitrite, whom Apollodorus cites as one of the Oceanides (although he is the only author to give such an affiliation).

Dione in Hesiod

As always, the Hesiodic version of this character focuses more on genealogy. Hesiod only presents her as the daughter of Oceanus, described in the Theogony among the long list of oceanids. On the other hand, in the Mythological Library she was a goddess of the first divine generation, cited among the daughters of Uranus and Gaia, and therefore sister of Thetis, Rhea, Themis, Phoebe, Mnemosyne, Thea and the other Titans. Although Hesiod mentions it in the proem of the Theogony, verses that have been branded as interpolation, the truth is that it no longer appears in the entire work. However, this inclusion among the list of fundamental gods already tells us about the importance of the goddess. As expected in this version, Dione does not appear in the catalog of Zeus' wives, the first being Metis, and then Themis, Eurynome, Demeter, Mnemosyne, Leto and his quintessential wife, Hera.

Dione in Hyginus

A final tradition, described by a later mythographer, Hyginus, cites Dione in the proem of the Fables as one of the female Titans and mother of Venus by Jupiter. Hyginus is especially interesting because he records in his works traditions that They have not been preserved or are far from orthodoxy. Thus it says that Dione is the wife of Tantalus, through which she fathered Niobe and Pelops. Some version affirms that Dione is a hyade, daughter of Atlas The text is clearly inspired by the versions of the Odyssey, where we can read that Calypso is another daughter of Atlante.