Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Nubes.
The gallery
Ixion, King of the Lapiths, Deceived by Juno
Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1615
Rubens' Louvre canvas stages the cloud-deception: Ixion embraces the false Juno — the Nephele/Nubes Zeus (or Hera) shaped — while the true goddess looks on. The cloud-mate who will mother Centaurus and the centaur brood stands at the hinge of Lapith desire and Tartarean punishment.
In play
Fabulae
Hyginus
Hyginus names Nubes as Ixion's mate and mother of the centaur kind — the Latin cloud distinct from Nephele wife of Athamas.
Ixion
The king who lies with the cloud in Hera's likeness — father, with Nubes, of Centaurus and the wild Thessalian race.
Centaurus (Greek mythology)
Son of Ixion and the cloud — the ancestor who mates with Magnesian mares and fathers the Centaurs.
Nephele
Greek tradition often calls Ixion's cloud Nephele — carefully kept here distinct from Nephele mother of Phrixus and Helle.