Dione (Titaness)
In [ancient ancient Greek language|Greek religion|Greek religion] and mythology, Dione is the goddess of sea, prophecy, magic, health, fertility and lust, primarily known from Book V of Homer's Iliad, where she tends to the wounds suffered by her daughter Aphrodite. Dione is presented either an Titaness, the daughter of Uranus and Gaia, or an Oceanid, the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. She was a goddess primarily worshipped at Dodona.
Name
Dione is essentially the feminine of the genitive form of Greek Ζεύς Zeús, that is, Διός Diós, "of Zeus". Other goddesses were called by this name.Due to being a daughter of Dione by some traditions, Aphrodite was sometimes called "Dionaea" and even "Dione".
Following the deciphering of Linear B by Ventris and Chadwick in the 1950s, a goddess named Di-u-ja was found in the tablets. This was considered to be a female counterpart of Zeus and identified with Dione by some scholars.
Worship
By the time of Strabo, Dione was worshiped at a sacred grove near Lepreon on the west coast of the Peloponnesus. She was also worshiped as a consort at the temples of Zeus, particularly his oracle at Dodona. Herodotus called this the oldest oracle in Greece and recorded two related accounts of its founding: the priests at Thebes in Egypt told him that two priestesses had been taken by Phoenician pirates, one to Libya and the other to Dodona and continued their earlier rites; the priestesses of Dodona claimed that two black doves had flown to Libya and Dodona and commanded the creation of oracles to Zeus. Homer and Herodotus both make Zeus the principal deity of the site, but some scholars propose Dodona originally served as a cult center of an earth goddess.In the 2nd-century BC sculptural frieze of the Great Altar of Pergamum, 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. This placement – making her the offspring of Gaia and Uranus – is Homeric and contradicts the theory put forth by Erika Simon that the altar's organization was Hesiodic. Dione's possible appearance in the east pediment of the Parthenon would likewise place her among the children of Gaia and Uranus.
Literary sources
The mythology concerning Dione is not consistent across the existing sources.Homer
In Book V of the Iliad, during the last year of the Trojan War, Aphrodite attempts to save her son Aeneas from the rampaging Greek hero Diomedes as she had previously saved her favorite Paris from his duel with Menelaus in Book III. Enraged, Diomedes chases her and drives his spear into her hand between the wrist and palm. Escorted by Iris to Ares, she borrows his horses and returns to Olympus. Dione consoles her with other examples of gods wounded by mortals – Ares bound by the Aloadae and Hera and Hades shot by Heracles – and notes that Diomedes is risking his life by fighting against the gods.In fact, Diomedes subsequently fought both Apollo and Ares but lived to an old age; his wife Aegialia, however, took other lovers and never permitted him to return home to Argos after the war.
Dione then heals her wounds and Zeus, while admonishing her to leave the battlefield, calls her daughter.