Ixion
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"They say that by the
commands of the gods Ixion spins round and round on
his feathered wheel, saying this to mortals: 'Repay
your benefactor frequently with gentle favors in
return'." [Pindar, Pythian
Odes
2.20]
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Ixion is one of the few who is still being
punished in Hades,
bound by Zeus to a wheel on
which he is whirled through the air.
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One of the LAPITHS
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Ixion is to be counted among the
LAPITHS, a people living
in Thessaly, remembered for their battle against
the CENTAURS, who were
their kinsmen, but having made their hearts foolish
with too much wine,
attempted nevertheless to violate
Pirithous' bride
Hippodamia 4 at their wedding party.
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Ancestor Peneus
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Both CENTAURS and
LAPITHS are descended
from the god of the river Peneus, which is in
Thessaly. For this god lay with the naiad Creusa 3,
and begat a son Hypseus 1 and a daughter Stilbe.
And this girl consorted with
Apollo, giving birth to
Lapithus 1 and Centaurus, ancestors of the
aforementioned peoples.
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Family of Ixion
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Lapithus 1, it is told, settled in the region
about the Peneus river, and having married
Orsinome, begat two sons Phorbas 2 and Periphas 2,
who reigned in this district calling their subjects
LAPITHS after Lapithus
1. Now Periphas 2 married his grandmother's niece
Astyaguia (daughter of Hypseus 1), and begat eight
sons, the oldest being Antion, who married Perimele
3 and begat Ixion.
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Murders his father-in-law
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Ixion married Dia, daughter of Eioneus 5; but
since the groom would not hand over the gifts of
wooing to his wife, Eioneus 5 took his mares as
security for these. Ixion then summoned his
father-in-law to his home, promising him to comply
in every respect; but when Eioneus 5 arrived, he
cast him into a pit which he had filled with fire,
thus killing him.
By Dia, Ixion became father of
Pirithous and
Phisadie, a woman who was given in servitude to
Helen by the
DIOSCURI [see also
CONSTELLATIONS].
But, having committed an enormous crime against
a relative (for some have said that Ixion was the
first to stain mortal men with kindred blood),
there was no one in the world willing to purify
him, except Zeus himself,
who out of pity, cleansed him at last.
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The Cloud
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But then, ungrateful Ixion fell in love with
Hera, and made advances to
her. And Zeus, having heard
Hera's report on this
matter, made a Cloud Resembling
Hera (Nephele 1) so as to
confirm his wife's words by deluding the man's
temerity. This is how Ixion lay with a cloud; and
believing that he had enjoyed
Hera's love, he went around
boasting that he had slept with the goddess.
From the union of Ixion with the Cloud, some
say, the CENTAURS were
born; but others say instead that Centaurus was
born
"without the
blessing of the Graces" [Pindar, Pythian
Odes
2.46]
... and that this monstrous offspring later
mated with mares, from whom the
CENTAURS were born.
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Clouded thoughts
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In any case Zeus, tired
of Ixion's misdeeds, bound him to a wheel, on which
he is whirled by winds through the air for all
eternity.
The idea may occur to someone that this is an
unjust punishment, specially considering that, just
as Ixion fell in love with
Zeus' wife
Hera, also
Zeus fell in love with
Ixion's wife Dia with whom he consorted effectively
(since Ixion could not produce deluding clouds), as
the god himself declares:
". . . let us
enjoy the delights of love. Never has such desire,
for goddess or woman, flooded and overwhelmed my
heart; not even when I loved Ixion's wife . .
." [Zeus to
Hera. Homer,
Iliad
14.315]
But precisely of that kind were Ixion's own
cloudy ideas: "That mortals can be like gods and do
love as the gods love to do, or similar ... And as
for the deities, that they could use a lesson about
the nature of justice, equality, or reciprocity."
This sound absurd to others, who deem wiser to
think otherwise, reasoning with the poet that
"A man must
always measure all things according to his own
place." [Pindar, Pythian
Odes
2.34]
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Family
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Parentage [two versions]
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Mates
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Offspring
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Notes
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Leonteus 2 & unknown
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Antion & Perimele 3
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-
- Leonteus 2 is otherwise unknown.
- Antion was son of Periphas 2 and
Astyaguia, daughter of Hypseus 1, son
of the river god Peneus. Periphas 2 was
son of Lapithus 1, son of
Apollo and
Stilbe, daughter of the river god
Peneus.
- Perimele 3 is daughter of Amythaon
1, son of Cretheus 1, son of
Aeolus 1.
- Other authors, based in the
testimony of scholiasts, have said that
Ixion was son of Phlegyas 1, a king
that is sometimes associated with
Boeotia, known also for being the
father of Coronis 2, the woman who
preferred Ischys before
Apollo, but
who nevertheless bore a son Asclepius
to the god. Phlegyas 1 is said to have
been murdered by the brothers Lycus 5
and Nycteus 3, who ruled
Thebes as
usurpers.
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Dia
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Dia, daughter of Eioneus 5 (also called Deioneus
2), gave birth to
Pirithous, either by
Ixion or by Zeus.
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Phisadie
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Phisadie was given in servitude to
Helen by the
DIOSCURI.
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Nephele 1
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a) Centaurus
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["a)", "b)", = different versions]
Some have said that Ixion begat by Nephele 1
(the Cloud Resembling
Hera), the
CENTAURS, whereas
others say that he fathered Centaurus, who begot
the CENTAURS after
consorting with the Magnesian Mares.
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Abolengo
Album - High Resolution Genealogical Charts
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Names in this chart
Aeolus 1, Aglaia 5,
Alcidice, Aleus, Amythaon 1, Antion, Aphidas 1,
Apollo, Arcas 1, Astraeus
1, Astyaguia, Boreas 1 [see
WINDS], Butes 6,
Callisto,
CENTAURS, Cretheus,
Creusa 3, Deimachus 1,
Deucalion 1, Dia,
Eioneus 5, Enarete, Eos,
Eurynomus 5, Gaia, Hellen
1, Hippodamia 4, Hypseus 1, Ixion, Lapithus
1, Nephele 1, Nymph 7, Orseis, Orsinome, Peneus,
Perimele 3, Periphas 2, Phisadie,
Pirithous, Polypoetes
1, Pyrrha 1, Salmoneus, Stilbe, Tyro,
Zeus.
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