The glyph of Ixion stands at the centre. The branches around it show the symbolism in four colours: gods in gold, archetypes in blue, traditions in green and narratives in red. Touch a branch and its explanation opens below the map.
King of the LapithsThessaly
Ixion is king of the Lapith people in Thessaly. His father changes with the source. Diodorus makes him the son of Antion, Hyginus the son of Leonteus, and other late sources the son of Phlegyas or of Ares. His wife Dia is the daughter of Eioneus (Deioneus in some sources). Lapithes in the family tree →
The fiery pitThe first murder of a kinsman
According to Diodorus, Ixion promises bride gifts to his father-in-law Eioneus in order to marry Dia, but he does not hand them over. When Eioneus comes to collect his gifts, Ixion throws him into a pit full of fire. Pindar names this as the first crime among mortals in which kindred blood was shed by treachery.
The first killer to be purifiedThe table of Zeus
According to Diodorus no one is willing to purify Ixion of this crime, until at last Zeus purifies him and takes him among the gods. In the Eumenides of Aeschylus the Erinyes say that Zeus was wrong to accept this first murderer as a suppliant. Athena also asks Orestes whether he has come as a suppliant in the manner of Ixion.
Coveting HeraThe second crime
While Ixion lives on Olympus as the guest of Zeus, he desires Hera. Pindar writes that he could not bear the sweet life among the gods and lost his mind. In the Dialogues of the Gods by Lucian, Hera tells Zeus about it herself. Hera on the Juno page →
NepheleA cloud in the likeness of Hera
Zeus shapes a cloud in the appearance of Hera and leaves it beside Ixion. Pindar calls it 'a sweet lie'. In Hyginus and later writers the cloud is named Nephele. Ixion lies with the cloud, and from this union the ancestor of the Centaurs is born.
CentaurusAncestor of the Centaurs
According to Pindar the cloud gives birth to an excessive and savage being named Centaurus. Centaurus mates with the Magnesian mares on the slopes of Mount Pelion, and from him descend the Centaurs, who are human above the waist and horse below. Diodorus also names an ancestor called Centaurus as the son of Apollo and Stilbe, and the family tree on this site shows that line. Centaurus in the family tree →
The four-spoked wheelThe punishment
Zeus binds Ixion to a four-spoked wheel. In Pindar the wheel is winged, and from it Ixion tells mortals to repay a benefactor with kindness. In Apollodorus Ixion is bound to the wheel and whirled through the air by the winds. In Hyginus it is Hermes who binds him to the wheel.
The wheel in TartarusThe Latin poets
Virgil and Ovid place the wheel in the underworld. In Ovid, Ixion is among the souls who suffer punishment together with Sisyphus and Tantalus, and he is described with the words 'Ixion turns'. Virgil writes that even the wheel of Ixion stood still while Orpheus sang. The move of the wheel from the sky to the underworld is the clearest difference between the sources.
The archetype of ingratitudeEvil for good
Pindar tells the story of Ixion in his second Pythian ode as a lesson, which is that a benefactor must be repaid. Ixion deceived both his father-in-law and the god who had received him as a guest. For the ancient reader the real crime was the breaking of the bond of hospitality and gift.
The father of PeirithousTwo separate lines
Dia, the wife of Ixion, is the mother of the Lapith hero Peirithous. In many sources Peirithous is the son of Ixion. Homer, however, in the fourteenth book of the Iliad, has Zeus speak of his love for 'the wife of Ixion' and of Peirithous being born from her. The two lines lived on side by side.
The battle of the Lapiths and the CentaursThe wedding of Peirithous
At the wedding of Peirithous and Hippodamia the Centaurs, who are not used to wine, get drunk and try to carry off the bride. In the Odyssey Homer treats the drunkenness of the Centaur Eurytion as the start of this fight. Ovid tells the battle at length in the twelfth book of the Metamorphoses. The west pediment of the temple of Zeus at Olympia and the metopes of the Parthenon show this battle. Hippodamia in the family tree →
The contrast with ChironThe wise Centaur
Most Centaurs descend from Ixion and are described as savage. Chiron, however, is the son of Cronus and Philyra, so both his lineage and his character set him apart from the rest. The ancient sources deliberately keep the difference between the wise teacher Centaur and the savage grandchildren of Ixion. Chiron page →
The four-spoked bondPythian 4
In his fourth Pythian ode Pindar tells how Aphrodite bound the iynx, the bird of love magic, to a four-spoked wheel. The image of the 'four-spoked bond' that he uses for the punishment of Ixion is very close to this. Desire and punishment thus meet in the same image of the wheel.
The lost plays of AeschylusIxion and Perrhaebides
Aeschylus is known to have written two tragedies called Ixion and Perrhaebides, but only small fragments of them survive. Perrhaebides is thought to have dealt with the murder of Ixion's father-in-law. Euripides and Sophocles also wrote plays called Ixion, which are lost.
A plutino with an underworld nameThe naming rule
Bodies in 2:3 resonance with Neptune are given the names of underworld figures, as Pluto is. The Minor Planet Center citation writes that Ixion was bound to a wheel that turns forever in the underworld. The name was suggested by E. K. Elliot. Orcus page →
Ixion in modern astrologyNo established interpretation
The 2016 Unicode proposal by David Faulks notes that the discovery of Ixion in 2001 drew the attention of astrologers. Several people have proposed glyphs, and none of them has entered Unicode. There is no commonly accepted tradition of interpretation, and Ixion has no link to the classical system of dignities.