Dia (wife of Ixion)
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In Greek mythology, Dia (Ancient Greek: Δία, romanized: Día, lit. 'divine, she-Zeus') is a Thessalian queen, wife of the nefarious Ixion and mother of the hero Pirithous. In some versions she bore Pirithous not to her husband but to Zeus, the king of the gods, who approached her in the form of a stallion. Although both her husband and son have major roles in ancient Greek tales, Dia plays no active role in them.
Dia ultimately derives from 'Ζεύς', and can signify divinity. In the Mycenaean pantheon, a goddess Diwia (Linear B: 𐀇𐀹𐀊, Di-wi-ja) seems to have functioned as a female counterpart of Zeus (equivalent to Archaic Dione),[1] can be linked with the several Dias of the post-Dark Ages era,[2] but the mortal queen's individual derivation from the goddess has been described as 'problematic.'[3] The people of Sicyon worshipped a goddess named Dia, or else Hebe under this epithet.[4] Dia thus might have originally been a byname for Hebe's mother Hera, wife of Zeus and the goddess that Dia's husband Ixion once attempted to consort with.[5] It is possible that the formulaic poetic phrases δῖα θεάων and δῖα γυναικῶν, used to describe many reverend goddesses and women, were originally meant to designate Zeus' consorts as well.[6]
Mythology
Dia was the daughter of the Perrhaebian Eioneus (or Deioneus); no mother is mentioned.[7] The king of the Lapiths Ixion asked for her hand in marriage, and promised lavish gifts to Dia's father in return.[8][9] Although they were married, Ixion never delivered the gifts he owed, and when Eioneus kept pestering him about it, he threw his father-in-law into a pit with ignited coal, killing him and making himself an outcast in the process.[10][11]
Dia bore one son, Pirithous, to Ixion.[12] Many versions of the tale however stated that Pirithous' father had not been Ixion, but the king of the gods Zeus himself,[13] perhaps a result of Ixion's abhorrent treatment of Dia's father.[14] In some authors, Zeus took the form of a horse in order to seduce Dia; their son was thus called Pirithous because Zeus had galloped around (perithein in ancient Greek) as a horse.[15]
