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Dione, a MythSource painting
Greek

Dione

The Titaness · Mother of Aphrodite · Dione of Dodona

01Identity

Dione in Greek tradition

Her pairing with Zeus at Dodona defines Dione’s principal cultic role. Dione is a Greek deity honoured at that sanctuary as Zeus’s consort, and she is identified in one tradition as the mother of Aphrodite. Unlike Aphrodite, who is presented as Dione’s daughter in that account, Dione is linked with the sacred oak, doves, and the working of the oracle.

Top questions

The quick answers

  • Who is Dione?

    Dione is a Greek deity associated with the Dodona sanctuary, oracular worship and prophecy, divine motherhood, Aphrodite’s maternal lineage, paired worship with Zeus.
    Source

    Source

    • The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)
    • Classical Mythology a to Z

  • What is Dione the god of?

    the Dodona sanctuary, oracular worship and prophecy, divine motherhood, Aphrodite’s maternal lineage, paired worship with Zeus
    Source

    Source

    • The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)
    • Classical Mythology a to Z

  • What family links are recorded for Dione?

    Father: Uranus, Mother: Gaia, 4 children.
02Family

Dione’s family, at a glance

Parents above, children below, and the figure’s consorts named in between, the same family data as the fact box, laid out as a chart instead of a field list.

UranusGaia
Dione
AphroditeDionysusNiobePandemos
03The names

The names Dione answers to

Diona

A variant form of Dione’s name

SourceClassical Mythology a to Z

Dione of Dodona

Dione as worshipped alongside Zeus at Dodona

SourceThe Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)

Mother of Aphrodite

Dione’s maternal identity in Homeric tradition

SourceThe Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)

Oceanid Dione

Dione’s genealogy as a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys

SourceThe Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)

Titaness Dione

Dione’s identification in later genealogical traditions as a Titaness

SourceThe Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)

04The myths

The myths of Dione

1 myth, each traced to its primary text and corpus sources.

The Union of Zeus and Dione

Zeus united with Dione, and Dione gave birth to Aphrodite. In one telling, Dione was a sea-nymph. In another, she was a Titanid and the consort of Zeus at Dodona. The union made Aphrodite the daughter of Zeus and Dione, rather than the child born from sea-foam after the severed parts of Ouranos fell into the sea. Both tellings connected Aphrodite with the sea, but this account made her birth the result of Zeus's union with Dione.

Dione gave birth to Aphrodite beneath the waves. The child was born in the sea, but she could not remain in the ocean depths. Zeus inhabited heaven, so his daughter had to rise from the water and climb towards Olympus. She ascended from the depths and reached the snow-capped summits of the mountain. There she breathed the refined air that belonged to the celestial gods.

Aphrodite was the goddess of Love and Beauty. When she took the air, doves and sparrows accompanied her. Her birth beneath the waves explained her connection with the sea, while her ascent to Olympus placed her among the gods. In this telling, the union of Zeus and Dione led to Aphrodite's arrival among the celestial gods as the daughter of Zeus, born beneath the sea and raised to the heights of Olympus.

The Union of Zeus and Dione, a MythSource painting of the scene

In the modern world

No modern rework confirmed yet.

3 sources· checked 2026-08-19

  1. 1The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)T1
  2. 2Apollodorus, The LibraryT1

    Quote

    “Zeus and Dione are the parents of Aphrodite.”

    Apollodorus, The Library

  3. 3The Greek MythsT1

Also appears in

The myths across MythSource where Dione features, each on that figure’s page.

The film

The Underdrawing video on Dione embeds here once it publishes.

Continue the road

More of Dione’s family, sourced

GaiaMotherDionysusChild