Ixion was the son ofPerimele,[2] and eitherAres, orLeonteus,[3] orAntion, or the notorious evildoerPhlegyas (whose name connotes "fiery").[4] Ixion had a son namedPirithous[5][6] Pirithous may have possibly instead been his stepson, ifZeus were Pirithous's father, as Zeus claims to his wifeHera inIliad 14.[7]
Ixion marriedDia,[8] a daughter of Deioneus,[9][10] and promised his father-in-law a valuable present. However, he did not pay thebride price, so Deioneus stole some of Ixion's horses in retaliation. Ixion concealed his resentment and invited his father-in-law to a feast atLarissa. When Deioneus arrived, Ixion pushed him into a bed of burning coals and wood. These circumstances are secondary to the fact of Ixion's primordial act of murder of a kinsman and a guest. The crime could be accounted for quite differently: in theGreek Anthology,[11] among a collection of inscriptions from a temple inCyzicus, is an epigrammatic description of Ixion slayingPhorbas andPolymelos, who had slain his mother,Megara.[12]
Defiled by his act, Ixion went mad; the neighboring princes were so offended by his act of treachery and violation ofxenia that they refused to perform the rituals that would cleanse Ixion of his guilt (seecatharsis). Thereafter, Ixion lived as an outlaw and was shunned. By killing his father-in-law, Ixion was reckoned the first man guilty of kin-slaying in Greek mythology.
This act alone would warrant Ixion a terrible punishment, butZeus took pity on Ixion and brought him toOlympus and introduced him at the table of the gods. Instead of being grateful, Ixion grew lustful forHera,[13][14] Zeus's wife, a further violation ofguest–host relations and an act of hubris against the king of the gods. Zeus found out about his intentions and made a cloud in the shape of Hera, which became known asNephele (fromnephos "cloud") and tricked Ixion into coupling with it. From the union of Ixion and the false-Hera cloud cameImbros[15] orCentauros,[16] who mated with theMagnesian mares onMount Pelion, Pindar told,[17] engendering the race ofCentaurs, who are called the Ixionidae from their descent.
Ixion was expelled from Olympus and blasted with athunderbolt. Zeus orderedHermes to bind Ixion to awinged fiery wheel that was always spinning. Therefore, Ixion was bound to a burning solar wheel for all eternity, at first spinning across the heavens,[18] but in later myth transferred toTartarus.[19][20]
Some versions of the myth portray Ixion as being trapped inHades after his death.[21]
Only whenOrpheus played his lyre during his trip to the Underworld to rescueEurydice did it stop for a while.
'Punishment of Ixion', a Roman fresco from the eastern wall of thetriclinium in theHouse of the Vettii,Pompeii,Fourth Style(60–79 CE)Mercury is in the center, holding thecaduceus.Nephele sits at Mercury's feet. On the rightJuno sits on her throne.Iris stands behind Juno, gesturing.Vulcan is the blond figure at the upper left, holding and standing behind the wheel. Ixion is at the lower left, already bound on the wheel.
Robert L. Fowler observes that "The details are very odd, the narrative motivation creaks at every juncture ... the myth smacks ofaetiology."[22] He notes thatMartin Nilsson suggested[23] an origin in rain-making magic, with which he concurs: "In Ixion's case the necessary warning about the conduct of magic has taken the form of blasphemous and dangerous conduct on the part of the first officiant."
Ixion was a figure also known to theEtruscans; he is depicted in an engraving on the back of the mirror, bound to an eight-spoked, winged wheelc. 460–450 BC, now in the collection of theBritish Museum.[24] Whether the Etruscans shared the Ixion figure with Hellenes from early times or whether Ixion figured among those Greek myths that were adapted at later dates to fit the Etruscan world-view is unknown.
^"come, let us turn to lovemaking. For never did such desire for goddess or woman ever flood over me, taming the heart in my breast, not even when I loved Ixion's wife, who borePeirithoös, the gods' equal in counsel ..." Even more tactless, Zeus goes on to tell Hera of several more of his conquests.Iliad 14.
^Dia "is only another name forHebe, the daughter of Hera, and indeed was probably the name for Hera herself, as 'she who belongs to Zeus' or 'the Heavenly one'".Kerenyi (1951), p. 159
^The Romantics and Their Contemporaries. The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Vol. 2A. United States: Pearson Education. 2006. p. 731.ISBN0-321-33394-2.
^Fowler, "The myth of Kephalos as aition of rain-magic (Pherekydes FrGHist 3F34)",Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik97 (1993:29–42).
^Nilsson,The Mycenaean Origin of Greek Mythology (1931) p. 135 note 19.
Tzetzes, J. (n.d.) [1826]."Books IX–X".Book of Histories. Translated by Alexander, Jonathan (online ed.) – via theio.com.from the original Greek of T. Kiessling's edition of 1826
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