Dione

Profile

Dione is recalled by Dante in two passages of the Paradiso connected with the Heaven of Venus. In Canto VIII the mention is introduced to explain an ancient error: according to the note to verse 7, the ancients did not offer divine honors to Venus alone, but extended them also to Dione, her mother, and to Cupid, her son. The same note specifies that Dione was, in the classical tradition cited by Dante, the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys and the mother of Venus. In Canto XXII Dione reappears alongside Maia, in the rapid list of mythological figures that mark the poet's passage through the planets of the Paradiso. The note to Paradiso VIII 7 explicitly indicates as sources for Dante's profile Virgil, Aeneid III 19 ff., and Statius, Thebaid I 288. Dante includes Dione in his celestial survey as the mother of Venus, and places her among the figures whom ancient tradition honored together with the goddess.