Ixion
Ixion, Ixion
Frieze-Dennison Vergil
- the son of Phlegyas (acc. to others, of Antion or of Jupiter), king of the Lapithae in Thessaly, and father of Pirithoüs. He murdered his father-in-law, to avoid paying the nuptial presents; and as no one would absolve him after such a deed, Jupiter took him into heaven and there purified him. When, notwithstanding this, he made an attempt on the chastity of Juno, Jupiter substituted for her an image of cloud, with which he begat the Centaurs; but having boasted of his imaginary criminal success with Juno, Jupiter hurled him into Tartarus, where he was bound fast to an ever-revolving wheel, Ov. M. 4, 465; 10, 42; Verg. A. 6, 601: Ixione natus, i.e. Pirithoüs, Ov. M. 12, 210: Ixione nati, the Centaurs. id. ib. 12, 504.—
- II Derivv.
- A Ixīŏnĭus (-onĕus), a, um, adj., of or belonging to Ixion: Ixionei rota orbis, Verg. G. 4, 484: Ixionii amici, Lampr. Heliog. 24.—
- B Ixīŏnĭdes, ae, m., son of Ixion, i.e. Pirithoüs, Prop. 2, 1, 38.—In plur.: Ixīŏnĭdae, ārum, the Centaurs, Luc. 6, 386; Ov. M. 8, 567.
(Ἰξίων), a son of Phlegyas (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. 3.62; comp. Strab. x. p.442, who calls him a brother of Phlegyas), or, according to others, a son of Antion by Perimela, of Pasion, or of Ares. (Schol. ad Pind. Pyth. 2.39; Diod. 4.69; Hyg. Fab. 62.) According to the common tradition, his mother was Dia, a daughter of Dei oneus. He was king of the Lapithae or Phlegyes, and the father of Peirithous. (Apollod. 1.8.2 ; Hyg. Fab. 14.) When Deioneus demanded of Ixion the bridal gifts he had promised, Ixion treacherously invited him, as though it were to a banquet, and then contrived to make him fall into a pit filled with fire. As no one purified Ixion of this treacherous murder, and all the gods were indignant at him, Zeus took pity upon him, purified him, and invited him to his table. But Ixion was ungrateful to his benefactor, and attempted to win the love of Hera. Zeus made a phantom resembling Hera, and by it Ixion became the father of a Centaur, who again having intercourse with Magnesian mares, became the father of the Hippocentaurs. (Pind. P. 2.39, &c. with the Schol. ; Schol. ad Eurip. Phoen. 1185; Lucian, Dial. Deor. 6.) Ixion, as a punishment, was chained by Hermes with his hands and feet to a wheel, which is described as winged or fiery, and said to have rolled perpetually in the air or in the lower world. He is further said to have been scourged, and compelled to exclaim, " Benefactors should be honoured." (Comp. Schol. ad Hom. Od. 21.303 ; Hyg. Fab. 33, 62; Serv. ad Virg. Aen. 6.601, Georg. 3.38, 4.484; Schol. Venet. ad Il. 1.266.) [L.S]
a surname of Demetrius, the grammarian, of Adramyttium. [Vol. I. p. 968. a.]
(Ἰξίων). The son of Antion or Peision, or, according to some, of Phlegyas. Others, again, gave him the god Ares for a father. He obtained the hand of Dia, the daughter of Deīoueus, having promised his father-in-law large gifts; but he did not keep his agreement and Deïoneus seizing his horses detained them as a pledge. Ixion then sent messengers to say that the gifts were ready if he would come to bring them. Deloneus accordingly came, but his treacherous son-in-law had prepared in his house a pit filled with fire and carefully covered over, into which the unsuspecting man fell and perished. After this deed Ixion was stricken with madness, and the atrocity of his crime was such that neither gods nor men would absolve him, till at length Zeus took pity on him and purified him, and admitted him to Olympus. Here again, incapable of good, Ixion cast a lustful eye on Heré, the wife of his divine benefactor. She, however, in concert with Zeus, formed a cloud in the likeness of herself, which Ixion embraced. Having boasted of his good-fortune, Zeus precipitated him into Erebus, where Hermes fastened him with brazen bands to an ever-revolving fiery wheel, lying upon which he is forever seourged and forced to cry out “Benefactors should be honoured!” The offspring of Ixion and the cloud was a son, Centaurus, who afterwards, having intercourse with the mares of Magnesia, begot the race of centaurs. See Centauri.
The myth of Ixion is probably of great antiqnity, as the customs on which it is founded only prevailed in the Heroic Age. Its chief object seems to have been to inspire a horror of the violation of hospitality on the part of those who, having committed homicide, were admitted to the house and table of the one who had consented to perform the rites by which the guilt of the offender was supposed to be removed. On Ixion, see the poem by Robert Browning in his Jocoseria.
- Apollod. 1.8.2
- attempts to violate Hera: Apollod. E.1.20
- deluded by a cloud in the likeness of Hera: Apollod. 2.2.2
- bound to a wheel and whirled through the air: Apollod. 2.2.2