Dione, in Greek mythology, a consort and, at Dodona in Epirus, a cult partner of Zeus, the king of the gods. Since the partner and wife of Zeus was normally the goddess Hera, it has been conjectured that Dione is an older figure than Hera. Dione was variously described. In the Iliad she is mentioned as the mother of the goddess Aphrodite by Zeus; in Hesiod’s Theogony, however, she is simply identified as a daughter of Oceanus. Other writers have identified her as the mother of Dionysus.