.gif)
Dione (mythology)
Encyclopedia
Dione was a Greek
goddess
primarily known as the mother of Aphrodite
in Book V of Homer
's Iliad
. Aphrodite journeys to Dione's side after she has been wounded in battle protecting her favorite son Aeneas
. In this episode, Dione seems to be the equivalent of the earth goddess Gaia
, whom Homer also placed in Olympus
. Book VI of the Iliad suggests Dione was the mother of many others, though that was lost through time. The Mother of the Gods was shunted aside when the 12 Gods of Olympus came to predominate. Dione has been said to be one of the most important gods, though no votives suggest that she was ever included among them. Dione's parentage is sometimes considered to be Gaia and Uranus, though otherwise she is daughter of nothingness.
Dione's name is really less a name than a title: "The Goddess
", etymologically a female form of Zeus
. After the Iliad, Aphrodite herself was sometimes referred to as Dionaea and even Dione. Dione was the Goddess of creation. Dione could control atoms, of which everything is made.The Roman
goddess
Diana has a similar etymology and was worshipped in a vaguely similar way but is not otherwise connected with Dione.
At the ancient oracle at Dodona
, Dionerather than Hera
was the goddess described as accompanying Zeus, as many surviving votive inscriptions show. The birds associated with her at Dodona were dove
s, and her priestesses at Dodona were called peliades
or "doves".
Although Dione was not mentioned as a Titan
by Hesiod
, but she appears instead in his Theogony among the long list of Oceanid
s. Apollodorus
includes her among the Titans The Roman mythographer Gaius Julius Hyginus
makes her the daughter of the Titan Atlas
. In the sculptural frieze of the Great Altar of Pergamum
(2nd century BC), Dione is inscribed in the cornice directly above her name and figures in the eastern third of the north frieze, among the Olympian family of Aphrodite; thus she is an exception to the rule detected by Erika Simon that the organizational principle according to which the gods on the Great Altar were grouped, was Hesiod
ic: her company in the grouping of offspring of Uranus and Gaia is Homeric, as is her possible appearance in the east pediment of the Parthenon.
Hyginus says King Tantalus
of Lydia
had Dione as a consort: by her, he was the father of Pelops
, Niobe
, and Broteas
. If a king's consort is "the goddess", a logical conclusion is that he justifies his authority as her earthly, visible consort in a form of sacred king
ship.
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
goddess
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
primarily known as the mother of Aphrodite
Aphrodite
Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.Her Roman equivalent is the goddess .Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia....
in Book V of Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
's Iliad
Iliad
The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
. Aphrodite journeys to Dione's side after she has been wounded in battle protecting her favorite son Aeneas
Aeneas
Aeneas , in Greco-Roman mythology, was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite. His father was the second cousin of King Priam of Troy, making Aeneas Priam's second cousin, once removed. The journey of Aeneas from Troy , which led to the founding a hamlet south of...
. In this episode, Dione seems to be the equivalent of the earth goddess Gaia
Gaia (mythology)
Gaia was the primordial Earth-goddess in ancient Greek religion. Gaia was the great mother of all: the heavenly gods and Titans were descended from her union with Uranus , the sea-gods from her union with Pontus , the Giants from her mating with Tartarus and mortal creatures were sprung or born...
, whom Homer also placed in Olympus
Mount Olympus
Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece, located on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, about 100 kilometres away from Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city. Mount Olympus has 52 peaks. The highest peak Mytikas, meaning "nose", rises to 2,917 metres...
. Book VI of the Iliad suggests Dione was the mother of many others, though that was lost through time. The Mother of the Gods was shunted aside when the 12 Gods of Olympus came to predominate. Dione has been said to be one of the most important gods, though no votives suggest that she was ever included among them. Dione's parentage is sometimes considered to be Gaia and Uranus, though otherwise she is daughter of nothingness.
Dione's name is really less a name than a title: "The Goddess
Goddess
A goddess is a female deity. In some cultures goddesses are associated with Earth, motherhood, love, and the household. In other cultures, goddesses also rule over war, death, and destruction as well as healing....
", etymologically a female form of Zeus
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
. After the Iliad, Aphrodite herself was sometimes referred to as Dionaea and even Dione. Dione was the Goddess of creation. Dione could control atoms, of which everything is made.The Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
goddess
Roman mythology
Roman mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient Rome's legendary origins and religious system, as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans...
Diana has a similar etymology and was worshipped in a vaguely similar way but is not otherwise connected with Dione.
At the ancient oracle at Dodona
Dodona
Dodona in Epirus in northwestern Greece, was an oracle devoted to a Mother Goddess identified at other sites with Rhea or Gaia, but here called Dione, who was joined and partly supplanted in historical times by the Greek god Zeus.The shrine of Dodona was regarded as the oldest Hellenic oracle,...
, Dionerather than Hera
Hera
Hera was the wife and one of three sisters of Zeus in the Olympian pantheon of Greek mythology and religion. Her chief function was as the goddess of women and marriage. Her counterpart in the religion of ancient Rome was Juno. The cow and the peacock were sacred to her...
was the goddess described as accompanying Zeus, as many surviving votive inscriptions show. The birds associated with her at Dodona were dove
Dove
Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerines. In general terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably...
s, and her priestesses at Dodona were called peliades
Peliades
In Greek mythology, the Peliades were the daughters of Pelias.Euripides entitled his earliest known tragedy Peliades; he entered it into the Dionysia of 455 BC but did not win....
or "doves".
Titan (mythology)
In Greek mythology, the Titans were a race of powerful deities, descendants of Gaia and Uranus, that ruled during the legendary Golden Age....
by Hesiod
Hesiod
Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...
, but she appears instead in his Theogony among the long list of Oceanid
Oceanid
In Greek mythology and, later, Roman mythology, the Oceanids were the three thousand daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. Each was the patroness of a particular spring, river, sea, lake, pond, pasture, flower or cloud...
s. Apollodorus
Apollodorus
Apollodorus of Athens son of Asclepiades, was a Greek scholar and grammarian. He was a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon, Panaetius the Stoic, and the grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace...
includes her among the Titans The Roman mythographer Gaius Julius Hyginus
Gaius Julius Hyginus
Gaius Julius Hyginus was a Latin author, a pupil of the famous Cornelius Alexander Polyhistor, and a freedman of Caesar Augustus. He was by Augustus elected superintendent of the Palatine library according to Suetonius' De Grammaticis, 20...
makes her the daughter of the Titan Atlas
Atlas
An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a map of Earth or a region of Earth, but there are atlases of the other planets in the Solar System. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats...
. In the sculptural frieze of the Great Altar of Pergamum
Pergamon Altar
The Pergamon Altar is a monumental construction built during the reign of King Eumenes II in the first half of the 2nd century BC on one of the terraces of the acropolis of the ancient city of Pergamon in Asia Minor....
(2nd century BC), Dione is inscribed in the cornice directly above her name and figures in the eastern third of the north frieze, among the Olympian family of Aphrodite; thus she is an exception to the rule detected by Erika Simon that the organizational principle according to which the gods on the Great Altar were grouped, was Hesiod
Hesiod
Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...
ic: her company in the grouping of offspring of Uranus and Gaia is Homeric, as is her possible appearance in the east pediment of the Parthenon.
Hyginus says King Tantalus
Tantalus
Tantalus was the ruler of an ancient western Anatolian city called either after his name, as "Tantalís", "the city of Tantalus", or as "Sipylus", in reference to Mount Sipylus, at the foot of which his city was located and whose ruins were reported to be still visible in the beginning of the...
of Lydia
Lydia
Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkish provinces of Manisa and inland İzmir. Its population spoke an Anatolian language known as Lydian....
had Dione as a consort: by her, he was the father of Pelops
Pelops
In Greek mythology, Pelops , was king of Pisa in the Peloponnesus. He was the founder of the House of Atreus through his son of that name....
, Niobe
Niobe
Niobe was a daughter of Tantalus and of either Dione, the most frequently cited, or of Eurythemista or Euryanassa, and she was the sister of Pelops and Broteas, all of whom figure in Greek mythology....
, and Broteas
Broteas
In Greek mythology, Broteas, a hunter, was the ugly son of Tantalus , whose other offspring were Niobe and Pelops. He was said to have carved the most ancient image of the Great Mother of the Gods , an image that in Pausanias' day was still held sacred by the Magnesians...
. If a king's consort is "the goddess", a logical conclusion is that he justifies his authority as her earthly, visible consort in a form of sacred king
Sacred king
In many historical societies, the position of kingship carries a sacral meaning, that is, it is identical with that of a high priest and of judge. The concept of theocracy is related, although a sacred king need not necessarily rule through his religious authority; rather, the temporal position...
ship.