Ixion

King of the Lapiths of Thessaly and, in the Greek reckoning, the first man to shed kindred blood — he murdered his father-in-law to avoid paying the bride-price. No one would purify him until Zeus himself took pity and cleansed him and brought him among the gods; but Ixion repaid the kindness by lusting after Hera. Zeus shaped a cloud (Nephele) into Hera's likeness, and from Ixion's union with the phantom sprang the race of Centaurs. For the outrage Zeus bound him to a winged, ever-turning wheel of fire, on which he spins through the sky forever, proclaiming that benefactors must be repaid with kindness (Pindar *Pythian* 2.21–48).

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