In what’s become a most interesting diversion, another devouring female has entered our discussion: the Venus fly trap, a carnivorous plant native to subtropical wetlands on the East Coast of America, is properly called Dionaea muscipula. (See Tears in Our Teacups: The Devouring Women of Ronit Barange)

Greek Goddess Dione

GlamTribale Lilith CollectionDione was a Greek goddess primarily known as the mother of Aphrodite in Book V of Homer’s Iliad. In a mystery novel akin to Lilith being Adam’s first wife, not Eve, Dione appears to be the equivalent of the earth goddess Gaia (also a GlamTribale goddess), whom Homer placed in Olympus.

Wiki writes that the Mother of the Gods Dione, aka Gaia, was “shunted aside” when the 12 Gods of Olympus came to predominate the public mythology. Dione (not to be confused with the Roman goddess Diana, another GlamTribale goddess).

Sailing to Ithaca

Dione was worshipped at Dodona, not Hera, as Zeus’ wife, according to many inscriptions now at the museum at Ioannina. Dodana was an oracle devoted to a Mother Goddess, similar to Rhea or Gaia. Wiki writes that the shrine of Dodona was regarded as the oldest Hellenic oracle, possibly dating to the second millennium BCE according to Herodotus.

Second only to the oracle of Delphi in prestige, Dordona remained an important religious sanctuary until the rise of Christianity. This Anne discovery is so relevant at 3:45 am, because Dodana is located near the Ionian Sea, in northwest Greece and away from Athens.

My first pursuit of women’s history and Jungian psychology was in Crete, where I wrote about evidence of goddess worship in my senior thesis at NYU. Rocking in the waves in a small sailboat moored in Ithaca a few years later, I awoke about 3am in what was one of the truly memorable nights of my life, detailed in one of my favorite Anne essays Sailing to Ithaca.

Momentary Shipwreck