Ixīon

, a king of The aly, son of Phlegas, or, according to Hyginus, of Leontes, or, according to Diodorus, of Antion, by Perimela daughter of A myth a on. He married Dia daughter of Eioneus or Deioneus, and promised his father-in-law a valuable present for the choice he had made of him to be his daughter’s husband. His unwillingne , however, to fulfil his promises obliged Deioneus to have recourse to violence to obtain it, and he stole away some of his horses. Ixion concealed his resentment under the mask of friendship; he invited his father-in-law to a feast at Lari a, the capital of his kingdom, and when Deioneus was come, according to the appointment, he threw him into a pit, which he had previously filled with wood and burning coals. This premeditated treachery so irritated the neighbouring princes, that all of them refused to perform the usual ceremony, by which a man was then purified of murder, and Ixion was shunned and despised by all mankind. Jupiter had compa ion upon him, and he carried him to heaven, and introduced him at the table of the gods. Such a favour, which ought to have awakened gratitude in Ixion, served only to inflame his lust; he became enamoured of Juno, and attempted to seduce her. Juno was willing to gratify the pa ion of Ixion, though according to others she informed Jupiter of the attempts which had been made upon her virtue. Jupiter made a cloud in the shape of Juno, and carried it to the place where Ixion had appointed to meet Juno. Ixion was caught in the snare and from his embrace with the cloud, he had the Centaurs, or, according to others, Centaur us. See: Centaur i . Jupiter, displeased with the insolence of Ixion, banished him from heaven; but when he heard that he had seduced Juno, the god struck him with his thunder, and ordered Mercury to tie him to a wheel in hell which continually whirls round. The wheel was perpetually in motion, therefore the punishment of Ixion was eternal. Diodorus , bk. 4 .— Hyginus , fable 62.— Pindar , bk. 2 , Pythian , poem 2.— Virgil , Georgics , bk. 4 , li. 484 ; Æneid , bk. 6 , li. 601 .— Ovid , Metamorphoses , bk. 12 , lis. 210 & 338.— Phi lost ratus , Imagines , bk. 2 , ch. 3 .— Lac tanti us [Placid us] on [Statius’] Thebaid , bk. 2 .――One of the Heraclidæ, who reigned at Corinth for 57 or 37 years. He was son of A lethes.