Ixion

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Now unto various kings pay various men sweet song, their valour's meed. So the fair speech of Cyprus echoeth around the name of Kinyras, him whom Apollo of the golden hair loved fervently, and who dwelt a priest in the house of Aphrodite: for to such praise are men moved by the thankfulness that followeth the recompense of friendly acts. But of thee, O thou son of Deinomenes, the maiden daughter of the Lokrian in the west before the house-door telleth in her song, being out of bewildering woes of war by thy might delivered, so that her eyes are not afraid for anything.

Ixion, they say, by order of the gods, writhing on his winged wheel, proclaimeth this message unto men: To him who doeth thee service make recompense affair reward.

This lesson learned he plainly; for when that among the friendly Kronidai he had gotten a life of pleasantness, his bliss became greater than he could bear, and with mad heart he lusted after Hera, whose place was in the happy marriage-bed of Zeus: yet insolence drove him to the exceeding folly; but quickly suffering his deserts the man gained to himself a misery most rare.

Two sins are the causes of his pain; one that he first among the heroes shed blood of kindred craftily, the other that in the chambers of the ample heavens he tempted the wife of Zeus—for in all things it behoveth to take measure by oneself.

Yet a mocking love-bed hurried him as he approached the couch into a sea of trouble; for he lay with a cloud, pursuing the sweet lie, fond man: for its form was as the form of the most highest among the daughters of heaven, even the child of Kronos; and the hands of Zeus had made it that it might be a snare unto him, a fair mischief. Thus came he unto the four-spoked wheel, his own destruction; and having fallen into chains without escape he became proclaimer of that message unto many.

His mate[7], without favour of the Graces, bare unto him a monstrous son, and like no other thing anywhere, even as its mother was, a thing with no place or honour, neither among men, neither in the society of gods. Him she reared and called by the name Kentauros, and he in the valleys of Pelion lay with Magnesian mares, and there were born thence a wondrous tribe, like unto both parents, their nether parts like unto the dams, and their upper parts like unto the sire.

God achieveth all ends whereon he thinketh—God who overtaketh even the winged eagle, and outstrippeth the dolphin of the sea, and bringeth low many a man in his pride, while to others he giveth glory incorruptible.


- Pindar, Pythian Ode 2


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PIRITHOUS: Now when he was just freed from madness, God sent infatuation upon him; he seized a cloud, made in the likeness of a woman, and spread among the Thessalians an impious rumour, — that he embraced the daughter of Cronus in fruitful union. For that vain boast thereafter he paid to heaven a just penalty; . . . Zeus took and hid him in the sky's abyss, far from the knowledge of man. There he was torn asunder by northern gales — he, my father, his retribution suited to his boasting, whereby he had sinned against the gods. And I, bearing his agonies riddled in my name, am called Pirithous, and my fortunes are like his. . .


- Fragment of Euripides' lost play Pirithous, taken from the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, translated by D. L. Page


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Ixion fell in love with Hera and attempted to force her; and when Hera reported it, Zeus, wishing to know if the thing were so, made a cloud in the likeness of Hera and laid it beside him; and when Ixion boasted that he had enjoyed the favours of Hera, Zeus bound him to a wheel, on which he is whirled by winds through the air; such is the penalty he pays. And the cloud, impregnated by Ixion, gave birth to Centaurus.


- Pseudo-Apollodorus, The Library, Epitome, Chapter 1, Section 20


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