Room Q, Room of the Cupids

Garland Preparation

Red Oecus P

• Ixion was king of the Lapiths, the most ancient tribe of Thessaly. Ixion married Dia and promised his father-in-law a valuable present. However, he did not pay the bride price, so Deioneus the father-in-law stole some of Ixion's horses in retaliation. Ixion concealed his resentment and invited his father-in-law to a feast.

• When Deioneus arrived, Ixion pushed him into a bed of burning coals and wood. Ixion went mad, defiled by his act; the neighboring princes were so offended by this act of treachery and violation of xenia that they refused to perform the rituals that would cleanse Ixion of his guilt.

• Zeus had pity on Ixion and brought him to Olympus and introduced him at the table of the gods. Instead of being grateful, Ixion grew lustful for Hera (some guys never learn), a further violation of guest-host relations.

• Zeus found out about his intentions and made a cloud in the shape of Hera, and tricked Ixion into coupling with it. From the union of Ixion and the false-Hera cloud came Centauros who spread over the mares on Mount Pelion engendering the race of Centaurs.

• Ixion was expelled from Olympus and blasted with a thunderbolt. Zeus ordered Hermes to bind Ixion to a winged fiery wheel that was always spinning;

Daedalus is showing the decoy wooden cow made by him to Pasiphae, the wife of Cretan king Minos and a sorceress, whom Zeus inspired with love for the bull

as a punishment; Minotaurus was born as the result of their liaison.

Room N Gold Oecus

Gold Oecus Room N

Alcmene and Herakles

• Pausanias says that Hera had sent the Witches to delay or prevent Alcmene from giving birth to an illegitimate child of Zeus

• Having failed to prevent the birth, the goddess sent two snakes to kill the infants in their crib. Young Iphicles screamed in terror, but Heracles strangled both snakes, one in each hand. Amphitryon the husband of Alcmene realised that Iphicles was his child, but Heracles belonged to the god. Other writers say that Amphitryon himself sent the snakes to the infants' room to identify which child belong to the god.

The Punishment of Dirce• Dirce was the wife of Lycus and the aunt of Antiope whom Zeus

impregnated. Antiope fled in shame to Sicyon, but was brought back by Lycus through force, giving birth to twins on the way. Dirce hated Antiope, and treated her cruelly after Lycus gave Antiope to her to care for, until Antiope, in time, escaped.

• In the Euripides play Antiope, Antiope flees back to the cave where

her sons Amphion and Zethus are born and raised by a shepherd. Years later, they refuse her pleas for sanctuary and don’t believe she is their mother, but when Dirce comes to find Antiope and orders her to be killed, the twins are convinced by the shepherd who raised them that Antiope is really their mother. They kill Dirce by tying her to the horns of a bull.

Punishment of DirceBy Amphion and Zethus