Dione (Titaness)

Dione (Greek Διώνη, Latin also Diona) is the mother of Aphrodite in Greek mythology. In Roman mythology she is equated with Venus - except in Cicero, where she is the mother of the "third" Venus.

Her parents are said to be Uranos and Gaia, and in the library of Apollodor she is named as one of the Titanides. In Hesiod she is an Okeanide, i.e. a daughter of Okeanos and Tethys, elsewhere in Apollodor, however, she is named among the Nereids, the daughters of Nereus and Doris.

Independent of this unclear origin is her close connection with Zeus of Dodona. She seems to have been originally the female equivalent of Zeus, as her very name testifies: to Zeus, the god par excellence, Greek Dios (Διός) corresponds Dione, the "goddess". But already in Mycenaean times she was displaced by Hera as the wife of Zeus, if Dione and Hera are not identical at all.

She was worshipped in Dodona as an oracle deity next to Zeus: three old women there interpreted the future from the flight of doves. The interpretation of the flight of doves seems to have involved incense and intoxicating potions, since Philostratos writes:

Here the Dodonaean priestesses in serious and solemn attire; for they seem to smell of smoke and libations.

Perhaps the oracle was also not an interpretation of the flight of the doves, but the three doves were the three priestesses of Dione, who were called "doves" (peliades). Accordingly, then the "black dove" (peleia melaina), of which Herodotus reports in connection with the foundation of the oracle, would be a (black-clothed) priestess of Dione.

Whether the oracle of Dione is newer than that of Zeus or even older is not certain. If it should be older, then the cult practice was interrupted for a longer time. Archaeologically, two temples are attested in Dodona, an older one and a second one, newly built at another place after the destruction of the sanctuary in 219 BC, but the attribution to Dione is not certain. In any case, Hypereides mentions a temple and a cult image of Dione in Dodona.

Dione's connection to the ancient oracle cult of Dodona is further confirmed by the fact that Pherekydes counts her among the nymphs of Dodona who raised Dionysus. In Euripides she is even mother of Dionysus. Since the nymphs of Dodona are related to the Hyades and these are related to the Pleiades, the daughters of Atlas, there is also a possible mythological connection with Dione, the daughter of Atlas and wife of Tantalus.

Already in Homer, Dione appears as the mother of Aphrodite. It is to her that Aphrodite, wounded by Diomedes in the battle of Troy, takes refuge on Mount Olympus:

This scene, in which Aphrodite lies stretched out in her mother's lap, both figures lightly wrapped in richly folding garments, is probably depicted on the east gable of the Parthenon in Athens. Dione comforts the daughter with examples of cases in which other gods had to accept injury by mortals, but finally threatens Diomedes with a curse and a luckless journey home.

Dione also appears in the company of Aphrodite in the depiction of the Gigantomachy in the eastern third of the northern part of the frieze of giants on the altar of Pergamon.

See also

• (106) Dione