Ixion

Greek King of the Lapiths in Thessaly, the largest ancient region of north-central Greece. Ixion fell in love with Hera, wife of the god Zeus. Angry at the advances of Ixion to his wife, Zeus tricked Ixion by creating a cloud, Nephele, in the likeness of Hera. Ixion made love to the cloud and from the union was born Centaurus, the ancestor of the Centaurs. Zeus then hurled a thunderbolt at Ixion and had him tied to a fiery wheel, condemned to whirl forever through the heavens. The poet Ovid saw Ixion as symbolic of sensuality.