IXION

ixion, in greek legend, son of phlegyas, king of the lapithae in thessaly (or of ares), and husband of dia. according to custom he promised his father-in-law, deioneus, a handsome bridal present, but treacherously murdered him when he claimed the fulfilment of the promise. as a punishment, ixion was seized with madness, until zeus purified him of his crime and admitted him as a guest to olympus. ixion abused his pardon by trying to seduce hera; but the goddess substituted for herself a cloud, by which he became the father of the centaurs. zeus bound him on a fiery wheel, which rolls unceasingly through the air or (according to the later version) in the underworld (pindar, _pythia_, ii. 21; ovid, _metam._ iv. 461; virgil, aeneid, vi. 601). ixion is generally taken to represent the eternally moving sun. another explanation connects the story with the practice (among certain peoples of central europe) of carrying a blazing, revolving wheel through fields which needed the heat of the sun, the legend being invented to explain the custom and subsequently adopted by the greeks (see mannhardt, _wald- und feldkulte_, ii. 1905, p. 83). in view of the fact that the oak was the sun-god's tree and that the mistletoe grew upon it, it is suggested by a. b. cook (_class. rev._ xvii. 420) that [greek: ixion] is derived from [greek: ixos] (mistletoe), the sun's fire being regarded as an emanation from the mistletoe. ixion himself is probably a by-form of zeus (usener in _rhein. mus._ liii. 345). "the myth of ixion" (by c. smith, in _classical review_, june 1895) deals with the subject of a red-figure cantharus in the british museum.