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IxionIxion was the King of the Lapiths and husband of Dia. He promised his father-in-law, Deloneus, 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 later abused his pardon by trying to seduce Hera; but the goddess substituted for herself a cloud. Thinking the cloud was Hera, Ixion impregnated it and the cloud gave birth to the Centaurs.
As punishment for his disloyalty, Zeus bound him on a fiery wheel, which rolls unceasingly through the air or (according to the later version) in the underworld. 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. Most of those punished in Hades, were guilty of unique crimes against the gods. But in one part of Hades are the shades of fourty-nine women who are all punished for the same crime. They are known as: |