Nephele (cloud)

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Nephele (cloud)

Nephele ( Greek  Νεφέλη ) is a cloud in Greek mythology that Zeus creates in the form of Heras when she is harassed by Ixion - the king of the Lapiths , whom Zeus helped to immortalize - at a feast of the gods in Olympus .

When Ixion "takes" this illusion in his wine frenzy, the Kentauros is born, a bastard, half man, half horse, who later fathered the centaurs with the mares on Mount Pelion .

As a result, Nephele strolls desolately through the halls of Olympus until she is married by the order of Hera of Athamas , the ruler of Boeotia , and thus becomes the mother of Phrixus and the Bright . But Athamas takes Ino , the daughter of Kadmos , the founder of Thebes, as his lover in his palace at the foot of the mountain Laphystion . With this he begets Learchus and Melikertes .

Nephele accuses Hera of adultery , who, as so often in such cases, swears vengeance. When Nephele told the men of Boeotia about Heras' intention and demanded the death of Athamas, they feared their ruler more than Hera, while the women in turn were devoted to Ino, who forged a plot that would cost Phrixus his life if Heracles would not rush to his rescue.

(In other versions, a ram with golden wool, who can speak, and which Hermes sent at Nepheles request, saves Phrixus and also carries away Helle, who no longer wants to stay with her father.)

On the occasion of another incident, however, Nephele comes into conflict with Heracles: When he is on the way to Erymanthos , he is hospitable and entertained by the centaur Pholos and finally gets to drink from the wine stored there, which is the common property of all centaurs. They rush over, enraged, and Heracles kills two of them. But then it lets Nephele, the grandmother of the Centaurs, rain, so that Herakles' bow is softened, which, however , does not prevent him, all Heros , from killing a few more Centaurs.

literature

• Richard Wagner : Nephele 1) . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 3.1, Leipzig 1902, Sp. 177-180 ( digitized version ).