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Dione

Dione
A Dione is among the Titanides or Titanesses. She is called a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, hence an Oceanid, a water-nymph. She is otherwise called a daughter of Gaia; according to worshippers of Orpheus her father is the sky-god Uranus, while others identify her father as Aether. She and Zeus are called the parents of Aphrodite by some ancient sources. Hesiod listed Dione among the wives of Zeus who were daughters of Tethys and Oceanus; she is described as beautiful in the "sacred books of Orpheus". She was one of the goddesses assembled to witness the birth of Apollo.
The Greek goddess of love sometimes takes the name Dione: this may identify her with Aphrodite, though Homer calls Dione the mother of Aphrodite. Károly Kerényi notes in this context that the name Dione resembles the Latin name Diana, and is a feminine form of the name Zeus (cf Latin deus, god), hence meaning "goddess of the bright sky". This association does not prevent her, however, from being worshipped along with Zeus as a deity of springs, making her a water-goddess.
There was also another Dione, the rain-bringing nymphs, is Dione, the daughter of Atlas and an Oceanid nymph (either Pleione or Aethra); she married king Tantalus and bore him sons Pelops and Broteas, and a daughter, Niobe


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