in fabulous history, king of the Lapithé, married Dia, the daughter of Deionius, to whom he refused to give 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 made him fall through a trap-door into a burning furnace, in which he was immediately consumed. Ixion being afterwards stung with remorse for his cruelty, ran mad; on which Jupiter, in compassion, not only forgave him, but took him up into heaven, where he had the impiety to endeavour to corrupt Juno. Jupiter, to be the better assured of his guilt, formed a cloud in the resemblance of the goddess, upon which Ixion begat the centaurs: but boasting of his happiness, Jove hurled him down to Tartarus, where he lies fixed on a wheel encompassed with serpents, which turns without ceasing.