Ixion

Ixion was a king of the Lapiths in Greek mythology, the husband of Dia and father of Pirithous. He was the first man to shed the blood of a kinsman, and after Zeus purified him he tried to seduce Hera. Zeus punished him by binding him to a revolving wheel, and by the cloud-image of Hera that he embraced he became the father of the Centaurs.

Who Was Ixion?

Family

Diodorus Siculus traces Ixion from Lapithes: Lapithes had a son Periphas, whose eldest son Antion lay with Perimela, daughter of Amythaon, and fathered Ixion (Diodorus 4.69.3). Ancient writers do not all agree on his father; Diodorus’ genealogy is the fullest that survives.

Ixion married Dia, daughter of Eioneus (also called Deioneus), and their son was Pirithous (Diodorus 4.69.3). Homer tells it differently: Zeus, listing his loves to Hera, names “the wife of Ixion, who bore Peirithoos, the equal of the gods in counsel”, making Pirithous the son of Zeus by Ixion’s wife (Iliad 14.317–318). Elsewhere Pirithous is called the son of Ixion, as in the list of the Calydonian hunters (Apollodorus, Library 1.8.2); he later became the friend of Theseus and visited him at Athens (Diodorus 4.63.1).

The Murder of Eioneus

Ixion had promised Eioneus many gifts in return for his daughter, the bride-price, but later would not pay them. Eioneus took Ixion’s mares as security. Ixion invited him to come and receive the gifts, but when Eioneus arrived he threw him into a pit filled with fire (Diodorus 4.69.3–4). Because Eioneus was his father-in-law and so a relative, this was the shedding of kindred blood, not a breach of hospitality alone. Pindar says that the hero was the first to bring kindred bloodshed, by treachery, among mortals (Pindar, Pythian 2.31–32). Because of the enormity of the crime, no man was willing to purify him (Diodorus 4.69.4).

Ixion and Hera

In the end, Diodorus says, Zeus purified him. Pindar describes him as living a pleasant life among the gods, but his happiness became greater than he could bear and he lusted after Hera, the wife of Zeus (Pindar, Pythian 2.25–29). Hera reported it, and Zeus, wishing to know if it was so, made a cloud in the likeness of Hera and laid it beside Ixion; Ixion boasted that he had enjoyed Hera (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.20).

Pindar says that Ixion lay with a cloud, pursuing a sweet lie, because its form resembled the daughter of Cronos; the hands of Zeus had made it as a snare for him, a beautiful bane (Pythian 2.36–40). The cloud was called Nephele (Diodorus 4.69.5). It bore a monstrous son, Centaurus, who lay with Magnesian mares in the valleys of Pelion and fathered a tribe of centaurs (Pindar, Pythian 2.42–48). Diodorus gives the Centaurs as the offspring of Ixion and Nephele, and Hyginus calls the centaurs Eurytion and Nessus sons of Ixion and the Cloud (Diodorus 4.69.5; Hyginus, Fabulae, the stories of Eurytion and Nessus).

The Punishment

Zeus bound Ixion to a wheel. Pindar calls it a four-spoked, winged wheel, from which Ixion cries out to mankind to repay a benefactor (Pindar, Pythian 2.21–24, 40–41). Apollodorus says the wheel is whirled by winds through the air (Epitome 1.20), and Diodorus says Zeus bound him to a wheel and that he also suffers eternal punishment after death (Diodorus 4.69.5). In the ancient texts it is Zeus who binds him, not Hermes; Apollonius speaks of Ixion’s brazen chains in Hades (Argonautica 3.62).

The Roman poets place Ixion in the underworld. Ovid shows Ixion turning on his wheel, pursuing himself and fleeing himself (Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.461), and when Orpheus sings in Hades, Ixion’s wheel stands still (Virgil, Georgics 4.484; Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.42).

The Centaurs and the Lapiths

Diodorus says that the centaurs, as sons of Ixion, claimed their share of their father’s kingdom from Pirithous, and when he refused they made war on him and the Lapiths. Later, at the wedding of Pirithous and Hippodameia, the drunken centaurs attacked the women guests, and Theseus and the Lapiths drove them out and killed many (Diodorus 4.70). Ovid tells this fight at length (Metamorphoses 12.210ff).

Ixion Sources

Homer, Iliad 14.317–318; Pindar, Pythian 2.21–48; Diodorus Siculus 4.63.1, 4.69–70; Apollodorus, Library 1.8.2 and Epitome 1.20; Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 3.62; Hyginus, Fabulae (Eurytion, Nessus); Virgil, Georgics 4.484; Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.461, 10.42, 12.210ff.

See Also: Zeus, Hera, Nephele, Centaur, Pirithous, Theseus