IXION, in fabulous history, the king of the Lapithæ, who, having married Dia, the daughter of Deionius, refused to give her the customary nuptial presents. Deionius in revenge took from him his horses; when Ixion, dissembling his resentment, invited his father-in-law to a feast, and contrived that the latter should fall through a trap-door into a burning furnace, in which he was immediately con-
sumed. Ixion being afterwards stung with remorse for his cruelty, ran mad; upon which Jupiter, in compassion, not only forgave him, but took him up into heaven, where he had the impiety to endeavour to seduce Juno. Jupiter, to be assured of his guilt, formed a cloud in the resemblance of the goddess, upon which Ixion begat the centaurs; but having boasted of his happiness, Jove hurled him down to Tartarus, where he remains fixed on an ever-revolving wheel encompassed with serpents.