Ixion

Ixion set a trap before his palace for Eioneus, the father of Dia, whom he had promised to marry. He had invited Eioneus to a banquet and agreed to provide rich bridal gifts. Beneath the trap, he prepared a great charcoal fire. When Eioneus arrived, he fell into the pit and was burned. Ixion had therefore committed the first murder of a kinsman, and the lesser gods refused to purify him.

Zeus took pity on Ixion. He had himself behaved badly in matters of love, and so he purified Ixion and brought him to Olympus. Ixion was allowed to eat at Zeus’s table. He showed no gratitude. Instead, he conceived a desire for Hera and planned to seduce her, believing that she would welcome the chance to take revenge on Zeus for his repeated unfaithfulness.

Zeus understood Ixion’s intention. He shaped a cloud in Hera’s likeness and placed it beside Ixion. Ixion, who was too drunk to recognise the deception, slept with the cloud. In another account, Hera reported his attempt to Zeus, who created the cloud to test whether the accusation was true. When Ixion boasted that he had slept with Hera, Zeus ordered Hermes to scourge him until he repeated that benefactors deserve honour.

Zeus then had Ixion bound to a fiery wheel. The winds carried the wheel through the air as it turned. The cloud that had taken Hera’s form gave birth to Centauros, a child of Ixion. Some accounts connect Ixion with the ancestry of the Centaurs through Centauros. His punishment followed his betrayal of the god who had purified him and received him at his table.