Nephele
nymphA cloud nymph shaped by Zeus to resemble Hera, who became the mother of the centaurs.
The Myth
When the mortal king Ixion lusted after Hera, Zeus decided to test him. He shaped a cloud into the exact likeness of Hera and placed this phantom — Nephele — where Ixion would find her. Ixion, unable to tell cloud from goddess, lay with Nephele, proving his guilt. Zeus punished him by binding him to a fiery wheel that spins through the sky for eternity.
But Nephele was not merely a trap. She had become real enough to conceive. She bore a child — Centaurus — who grew to be a wild, deformed creature that mated with the mares of Mount Pelion. Their offspring were the centaurs, those half-human, half-horse beings who would become some of Greek mythology's most memorable figures: the wise Chiron, the drunken brawlers at the Lapith wedding, the tragic Nessus.
Nephele appears again in a separate myth as the first wife of King Athamas, mother of Phrixus and Helle. When Athamas's second wife tried to have her children killed, Nephele sent the golden ram that carried them to safety — Phrixus to Colchis, where the ram's fleece became the Golden Fleece that Jason later sought.
Parents
Created by Zeus from cloud
Symbols
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth:
Explore Further
Helle
heroDaughter of Athamas who fell from the golden ram into the strait that bears her name — the...
Ixion
heroIxion was the first human to murder a kinsman and the first to attempt seduction of a goddess —...
Golden Fleece (Origin)
conceptThe fleece of the golden ram Chrysomallus that carried Phrixus to Colchis, becoming the object of...
Ixion (Punishment)
heroFirst human murderer of kin, who attempted to seduce Hera and was bound to an eternally spinning...
Phrixus
heroSon of Athamas who rode the golden ram to Colchis, sacrificed it, and gave its fleece to King...
Centaur (Nessus)
creatureNessus was the centaur whose poisoned blood, given as a false love charm, ultimately destroyed the...
Golden Fleece
conceptThe fleece of a golden-wooled ram, hung in a sacred grove in Colchis and guarded by a sleepless...
Nessus
creatureNessus was the centaur who tried to abduct Heracles' wife Deianira — and whose poisoned blood,...
Achilles
heroThe greatest warrior in the Greek army at Troy, nearly invulnerable thanks to being dipped in the...
Achilles (Wrath)
heroThe swift-footed son of Peleus and Thetis whose wrath drives the Iliad and whose choice between...
Chiron
creatureChiron tutored Achilles, Asclepius, Jason — the great teacher.
Colchis
placeColchis was a kingdom at the eastern edge of the Greek world, on the shore of the Black Sea in...