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Zeus and Dione

Dione is one of the most enigmatic goddesses of the ancient Greek pantheon. So who was she, and what was her connection to Zeus? Keep reading to find out!

Many goddesses are well-known in Greek mythology. Athena, Hera, and Artemis are widely recognized and remembered for the wealth of stories and works of art that feature them.

Others, however, were far more minor figures. Along with countless nymphs and minor goddesses, the Titanesses figured into mythology as mother goddesses but were often ignored in the broaders stories of the Olympian gods.

One of the names of the goddesses that is only infrequently seen is that of Dione. Listed among the mother goddesses, it is even unclear whether Dione was a Titaness or an Oceanid.

Dione may not be seen often in the stories, but when she is it’s in a prominent role. Her most famous appearance is in the Iliad, where she’s not just present but is the mother of one of mythology’s more famous goddesses.

Homer said that Dione was the mother of Aphrodite, who is usually thought of as having been born without a mother. He also said that Aphrodite’s father was not Uranus as is commonly said, but was Zeus instead.

So where did Homer get the idea that Zeus and Dione were the parents of the goddess of beauty? The ancient link between Dione and Zeus is older than the poet and, based on surviving legends and their names themselves, may show Dione as having once been the most powerful goddess of the Greeks.

Dione as Aphrodite’s Mother

The most common stories of Aphrodite claim that she had no mother. When Uranus was castrated, his genitals were thrown into the sea and mixed with sea foam to create the goddess of beauty.

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An alternative story was told, however, that claimed a much different origin for Aphrodite. This legend said that she was the daughter of Zeus and a goddess named Dione.

Dione features in few written records, but she makes a memorable appearance in Homer’s Iliad. When Aphrodite is wounded in battle, she goes to her mother for consolation.

Dione tends to her daughter’s wounds and tells her that many of the gods have been unfairly targeted by humans. In this scene, Dione is portrayed as a loving mother and caregiver who both heals and comforts her daughter.

No legend survives that tells the story of Dione and Zeus having a relationship, but in the same book of the Iliad Aphrodite is referred to many times as Zeus’s daughter by both the narrator and in the words of other gods.

The beliefs held by the priestesses at one of Zeus’s most holy sites makes it clear that the connection between him, Dione, and Aphrodite did not exist only in one poet’s imagination.

Zeus’s oracle at Dodona worshipped Dione in connection with their patron god. The temple complex included altars to both of them, as well as to Aphrodite.

Long after the time of Homer, in the 2nd century AD, Pseudo-Apollodorus described Dione as one of the early consorts of Zeus. She was listed along with Metis and Thetis as one of the Titanesses he had been involved with before his marriage to Hera.

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Dione also figures in art, particularly in sculptures that depict the gods. While some images are only presumed to be of her, the Great Altar of Pergamon includes her name and shows her among the family of Aphrodite.

Dione’s status as the mother of a great goddess can also be seen in descriptions of the birth of Apollo and Artemis. There, she is named along with other mother goddesses as witnesses to the birth of the twins.

My Modern Interpretation

Dione is usually considered to be a Titaness. While many of these goddesses were the mothers of the Olympians, they largely faded from prominence in other roles.

It is understandable then that there is little widespread worship of Dione and that the stories of her relationship with Aphrodite are marginal. There is some evidence, however, that her connection with Zeus goes much deeper than that of the other Titan goddesses.

The oracle of Zeus at Dodona was described by Heroditus as being the oldest in Greece. He claimed that it was founded by Phoenicians, who had been particularly active in the region during the Bronze Age.

The character is also most well-developed in the writings of Homer, which are widely considered to be the oldest written accounts of many myths. Homer wrote in the 8th century BC, at a time when the legends of the gods were still being developed and standardized through oral tradition.

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Many details in Homer’s works were not maintained in later eras. Scholars believe that many of these were earlier traditions that faded over the centuries as the complex mythology of Greece evolved.

Dione could have been one of the deities that was more prominent in Homer’s time than in later eras. It is also possible that she was a more local goddess, as she appears in his works but not those of Hesiod in Asia Minor.

But where did Dione and Zeus’s connection come from?

Dione’s name provides an important link between her and the king of the gods. They have the same root.

Greek spelling was never standardized and changed often. Zeus could also be written as Dios.

Dione is the feminine version of Zeus’s name, which when written as Dios itself simply means “god.” Just as Zeus was the chief god of the Greeks, it’s possible that Dione was the chief goddess.

The name was also used as a title or epithet for other goddesses in the pantheon, including Artemis and Rhea. It is possible, therefore, that Dione was never an individual goddess but referred to a type of goddess instead.

Tracing the history of ancient religion, historians believe that Zeus was one of the few gods brought to the region when Greek-speakers migrated there in the Bronze Age. While the newcomers adopted many aspects of the local religions, their god remained the most powerful member of the pantheon.

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Just as the Greek myths themselves claim that Zeus had wives before Hera, many historians believe the original form of Zeus had a different queen. That queen may have been Dione, the female counterpart of Dios.

Some also believe the Dodona may have originally been dedicated to Dione as a mother goddess rather than Zeus. As Dione became less prominent, Zeus surpassed her and the holy site shifted its focus to his cult over hers.

By the time of Homer many gods had been brought under the umbrella of the Greek pantheon and relationships between them had been imagined. There was never a single mythology for all of Greece, however, and the many individual states and regions often had differences between their stories.

Thus, while most of Greece eventually came to believe that Aphrodite had been born of the sea, in a few places the belief that she was the daughter of Zeus and Dione persisted. Even as Dione became less important in mythology, some people still considered her to be one of the great mother goddesses associated with Zeus.

Dione may survive in few stories today, but in the earliest days of Greek culture she may have been the queen of the gods.

In Summary

Dione is a poorly-attested to goddess of the Greek pantheon. While she is usually named among the Titanesses, some writers also claimed she was a daughter of Oceanus.

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Dione appears rarely in written epics and poems, but she features is one of the Greek world’s most famous works of literature. Dione is not only present during the events of the Iliad, she is portrayed as the mother of Aphrodite.

While the goddess of beauty was usually said to have been born from sea foam after Uranus’s castration, Homer claimed that she had a mother. He also said many times that her father was Zeus.

This was not the only place in which Dione and Zeus were tied together. At his oracle at Dodona, Dione and Aphrodite were worshipped alongside him.

Homer was one of the earliest writers in Greece and Dodona was considered to be Zeus’s oldest oracular site. This suggests that Dione may have been more prominent in beliefs that predated the written record.

Her name provides an important clue to the connection she had with Zeus. Dione is the feminine version of an alternate spelling of Zeus and translates to the title “Goddess.”

These factors lead some historians to believe that Dione was an early Greek goddess and the female counterpart of the Olympian king. The former queen was surpassed in later legends, but continued to be recognized among the important mother goddesses of mythology.

My name is Mike and for as long as I can remember (too long!) I have been in love with all things related to Mythology. I am the owner and chief researcher at this site. My work has also been published on Buzzfeed and most recently in Time magazine. Please like and share this article if you found it useful.

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