Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Centaurus.
The gallery
Ixion and Nephele
Henry Fuseli, 1809
Fuseli stages Ixion embracing the cloud Nephele — the union that begets Centaurus, progenitor of the horse-men. The cloud-crime before the race of centaurs spreads.
Ixion Worshipping Hera Disguised as a Cloud
Henry Fuseli, c. 1770–1800
Fuseli again: Ixion before the false Hera — the cloud that will birth Centaurus, father of the wild centaur kind (distinct from wise Chiron).
Ixion Embracing a Cloud
Unknown (after the Loves of Juno series), 16th–17th century
MET engraving: Ixion clasps the cloud — the generative scene from which Centaurus, and then the centaurs, descend in mythographic tradition.
Ixion and Nephele
Unknown, 18th–19th century
Print of Ixion with the cloud-nymph Nephele — the parentage of Centaurus made visible as embrace rather than as a later herd of horse-men.
In play
Centaurus (Greek mythology)
Son of Ixion and Nephele (or of Zeus and a cloud) — progenitor of the centaurs; not the constellation Centaurus nor the galaxy Centaurus A.
Ixion
Father of Centaurus by the cloud — the Lapith king whose desire for Hera seeds the centaur race before his wheel in Tartarus.
Nephele
The cloud shaped like Hera — mother of Centaurus in the Ixion tale (a different Nephele is mother of Phrixus and Helle).