Ixion in Heaven

Last updated

Ixion in Heaven
Ixion in Heaven.png
Author Benjamin Disraeli
LanguageEnglish
PublisherNew Monthly Magazine
Publication date
1832/3
Media typePrint

Ixion in Heaven is the fifth novel written by Benjamin Disraeli who would later become a Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Contents

Background

Ixion in Heaven was published in two installments of the New Monthly Magazine in December 1832 and February 1833. [1]

Plot

Ixion, the king of Thessaly (famous for its horses), marries Dia, daughter of Deioneus who steals some of his horses. Ixion invites Deioneus to Larissa (his capital) where Deioneus accidentally (according to Ixion) falls in a pit, whilst walking with Ixion, and dies. Dia accuses Ixion of murder and he flees to a neighbouring kingdom where his account of events is also disbelieved, so Jupiter takes him to heaven.

A retrospective portrayal (1852) of Disraeli as a young man when he wrote Ixion in Heaven Dizzy-grant.jpg
A retrospective portrayal (1852) of Disraeli as a young man when he wrote Ixion in Heaven

In heaven Ixion goes hunting with Mercury and at dinner meets various gods and goddesses including Apollo (a poet), his sister Diana and the Queen of Heaven, Juno, to whom he takes a fancy. Within three days, however, Ixion is unpopular with the likes of Mercury and Ganymede on account of his generally imperious behaviour. Ixion falls asleep in a field to be woken by Cupid to whom he confides his interest in Juno, who then appears on the scene. Cupid shoots his arrow through both their hearts. The couple are late for dinner, enraging Jupiter. After the meal Mercury and Ganymede tell Jupiter about Ixion's interest in Juno and all the gods head off in search of him. Cupid makes a cloud descend on the pavilion where Ixion is with Juno and in the fog secretly tells Juno to escape. When the cloud lifts, Ixion is alone and Jupiter then banishes him to Hades.

Analysis

Ixion in Heaven is a contemporary revision of the myth of Ixion found in the Greek poet Pindar's Pythian Odes and in Apollonius Rhodius including Ixion's murder of his kin, the temptation of Juno, Juno's escape through a fog, and Jove's binding of Ixion to a wheel and casting him out of heaven. [2]

When the novel was republished in 1853, Disraeli wrote that Jupiter represented George IV and Apollo Lord Byron. [3] It has also been suggested that the novel depicts how Disraeli himself would have behaved in heaven. [4]

Reception

Disraeli’s father Isaac, also a novelist, considered Ixion in Heaven and its follow-up The Infernal Marriage which was published the following year as his son’s most original contribution to literature. [1]

The novel was republished in 1926 as part of the Bradenham edition of all Disraeli’s novels, Philip Guedalia’s introduction describing it as “a blend of gaiety and Lemprière….its scheme, perhaps, and something of its tone were owed to Lucian.” [5] Another review of the novel and two other early Disraeli works (Popanilla and The Infernal Marriage) which appeared at this time in The Spectator refers to Disraeli, “ invoking the satiric and the comic muse with a sure hand.” [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ganymede (moon)</span> Largest moon of Jupiter and in the Solar System

Ganymede, or Jupiter III, is the largest and most massive natural satellite of Jupiter and in the Solar System. It is the largest Solar System object without a substantial atmosphere, despite being the only moon in the Solar System with a substantial magnetic field. Like Titan, Saturn's largest moon, it is larger than the planet Mercury, but has somewhat less surface gravity than Mercury, Io, or the Moon due to its lower density compared to the three.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ixion</span> King of the Lapiths in Greek mythology

In Greek mythology, Ixion was king of the Lapiths, the most ancient tribe of Thessaly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cupid and Psyche</span> Classical story of Cupid and Psyche

Cupid and Psyche is a story originally from Metamorphoses, written in the 2nd century AD by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis. The tale concerns the overcoming of obstacles to the love between Psyche and Cupid or Amor, and their ultimate union in a sacred marriage. Although the only extended narrative from antiquity is that of Apuleius from the 2nd century AD, Eros and Psyche appear in Greek art as early as the 4th century BC. The story's Neoplatonic elements and allusions to mystery religions accommodate multiple interpretations, and it has been analyzed as an allegory and in light of folktale, Märchen or fairy tale, and myth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larunda</span> Naiad nymph in Ovids "Fasti"

Larunda was a naiad nymph, daughter of the river Almo and mother of the Lares Compitalici, guardians of the crossroads and the city of Rome. In Ovid's Fasti she is named Lara.

<i>Dido, Queen of Carthage</i> (play) Play by Christopher Marlowe, published 1594

Dido, Queen of Carthage is a short play written by the English playwright Christopher Marlowe, with possible contributions by Thomas Nashe. It was probably written between 1587 and 1593, and was first published in 1594. The story focuses on the classical figure of Dido, the Queen of Carthage. It tells an intense dramatic tale of Dido and her fanatical love for Aeneas, Aeneas' betrayal of her and her eventual suicide on his departure for Italy. The playwrights relied on Books 1, 2, and 4 of Virgil's Aeneid as primary source.

<i>The Loves of the Gods</i> Fresco by Annibale Carracci

The Loves of the Gods is a monumental fresco cycle, completed by the Bolognese artist Annibale Carracci and his studio, in the Farnese Gallery which is located in the west wing of the Palazzo Farnese, now the French Embassy, in Rome. The frescoes were greatly admired at the time, and were later considered to reflect a significant change in painting style away from sixteenth century Mannerism in anticipation of the development of Baroque and Classicism in Rome during the seventeenth century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centaurus (Greek mythology)</span> Father of centaurs in Greek mythology

In Greek mythology, Centaurus is the son of Apollo and Stilbe, daughter of the river-god Peneius and the naiad Creusa. He is the twin brother of the hero Lapithes and father of the race of mythological beasts known as the Centaurs or Ixionidae. The Centaurs are half-man, half horse; having the torso of a man extending where the neck of a horse should be. They were a kindred people with the Lapiths and were said to be wild, savage, and lustful.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Platée</span> 1745 opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau

Platée is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Adrien-Joseph Le Valois d'Orville. Rameau bought the rights to the libretto Platée ou Junon jalouse by Jacques Autreau (1657–1745) and had d'Orville modify it. The ultimate source of the story is a myth related by the Greek writer Pausanias in his Guide to Greece.

There are several real or apparent name conflicts between different Solar System bodies, in spite of efforts to give every named body a distinct name. Most of these conflicts are between asteroids and natural satellites of planets, which are named according to different but partially overlapping schemes. Most satellites are named after people and divinities in Greek and Roman mythology; this is rarely true of asteroids currently, with the exception of centaurs and Jupiter trojans, but formerly many asteroids had mythological names, which consequently came into conflict with the names of natural satellites.

<i>Sémélé</i> 1709 opera by Marin Marais

Sémélé is an opera by Marin Marais with a libretto by Antoine Houdar de la Motte first performed on 9 April 1709, by the Paris Opera at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal. The opera is in the form of a tragédie en musique with a prologue and five acts.

<i>Le Réveil de Flore</i> Ballet

Le Réveil de Flore, is a ballet anacréontique in one act, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Riccardo Drigo, to a libretto written by Petipa and Lev Ivanov. First presented by the Imperial Ballet at Peterhof Palace on 6 August [O.S. 25 July] 1894.

<i>Genealogia Deorum Gentilium</i> Book by Giovanni Boccaccio

Genealogia deorum gentilium, known in English as On the Genealogy of the Gods of the Gentiles, is a mythography or encyclopedic compilation of the tangled family relationships of the classical pantheons of Ancient Greece and Rome, written in Latin prose from 1360 onwards by the Italian author and poet Giovanni Boccaccio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eagle of Zeus</span> Personifications of Zeus

The Eagle of Zeus was one of the chief attributes and personifications of Zeus, the head of the Olympian pantheon.

<i>Strolling Actresses Dressing in a Barn</i> 1738 painting by William Hogarth

Strolling Actresses Dressing in a Barn is a painting from 1738 by British artist William Hogarth. It was reproduced as an engraving and issued with Four Times of the Day as a five print set in the same year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Austen (illustrator)</span> British book illustrator

John Archibald Austen was a British book illustrator.

Meredith White Townsend (1831–1911) was an English journalist and editor of The Spectator. With Richard Holt Hutton, he was joint-editor of the Spectator until 1887, and he was largely instrumental in making it an established success, writing most of the political articles and the opening paragraphs every week. His two chief publications were The Great Governing Families of England (1865), written in conjunction with Langton Sanford, and Asia and Europe (1901).

<i>La divisione del mondo</i> 1675 Opera by Giovanni Legrenzi

La divisione del mondo is an opera in 3 acts by composer Giovanni Legrenzi. The opera uses an Italian-language libretto by Giulio Cesare Corradi and was commissioned by the Marquis Guido Rangoni. The opera tells the story of the division of the world after the Titan deities were defeated by the Olympian gods. The goddess Venus provides the central conflict of the opera through a series of moral temptations which lead all of the other gods, with the exception of Saturn, into debauchery.

The Voyage of Captain Popanilla is the second novel by Benjamin Disraeli, who later became a prime minister of the United Kingdom. Its allegory of a fantastic voyage is a satire on contemporary society.

<i>The Infernal Marriage</i> 1834 novel by Benjamin Disraeli

The Infernal Marriage is the eighth novel written by Benjamin Disraeli who would later become Prime Minister of Great Britain.

References

  1. 1 2 Blake, Robert (1966). Disraeli (Prion Books 1998 ed.). Eyre & Spottiswoode. p. 86. ISBN   1853752754.
  2. "Ixion in Heaven Analysis". enotes.com. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  3. Gunn, John; Wiebe, Melvin; Disraeli, Benjamin (1982). Benjamin Disraeli Letters: 1852-1856 (1997 ed.). University of Toronto. p.  262. ISBN   080204137X . Retrieved 20 July 2018. disraeli Ixion.
  4. Strachey, J St. Loe (16 January 1926). "Disraeli and Ixion". The Spectator: 20. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  5. Disraeli, Benjamin (1926). Popanilla and Other Tales. London: Peter Davies. p. vi.
  6. Strachey, J St Loe (1 January 1927). "A Political and Social Satirist". The Spectator: 22. Retrieved 20 July 2018.