Week 7 Story Planning: Ixion

This week, I worked on my planning post to get ready for the first post in my storybook, which will tell the story of Ixion. My retelling, an obituary penned by Hermes, would include some of Ixion’s backstory — that he’s one of the Lapiths; that he was a king. 

"Ixion," by Jose Ribera. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

I really want to dwell on his two major crimes in this story, his greatest offense being the murder of his father-in-law. Though his second crime is the one that gets him sent to Tartarus, I would have Hermes be most offended and horrified by this first crime, a terrible betrayal of family (apparently, Ixion is the first man to murder his kin). 

When Ixion marries Dia, his father-in-law Eioneus steals Ixion's mares as payment. Ixion then has Eioneus for dinner and burns him alive. For this crime, Ixion is an outcast, rejected and un-forgiven by much of society. He’s finally purified and forgiven by Zeus, who takes mercy on him and hosts him at Olympus. Here, Ixion betrays Zeus and falls in lust with Hera. Zeus transforms into a cloud to trick Ixion into thinking he’s with Hera; Zeus then sleeps with Ixion’s wife as well (a weird piece of lore: Ixion’s union with the cloud is the origin of centaurs, a fact that I might be able to work in). 

The main points of Ixion’s life are murder, attempted adultery, and betrayal (of Zeus, who forgave him originally). Hermes, in this piece, can reflect not only on those points, but on the fickleness of the gods — after all, Zeus condemns Ixion for the exact same crime he later commits with Ixion’s wife. Ixion’s afterlife is also unique and works especially well with the structure of my storytelling, since Hermes is the one Zeus orders to carry out Ixion’s punishment (which involves Ixion spinning eternally on a fiery wheel in Tartarus).

Ixion’s tale would be told in the first-person from Hermes’ perspective, likely starting with Hermes’ reflection on the terrible nature of the task set before him, but the terrible realities of what Ixion did on earth. 

Bibliography: Ixion. Carlos Parada, web source.