Halley’s Comet 1266 BC -Ixion and the Centaurs by Nicholas Costa © 2026

Who knows not the aye-returning (ever returning) rock, and the deceiving waters, and Tityos food of vultures, and Ixion swooning on the long circlings of the wheel (Statius, Thebaid, 4.536)

Ixion, the myth:
Ixion: was depicted as the ruler of a people known as the Lapiths in Thessaly, central Greece. He murdered his father-in-law, Deioneus, after a dispute over the promised bride-price (marriage gifts) Ixion was supposed to pay for marrying his daughter. Ixion invited Deioneus to a feast and killed him by pushing him into a pit of burning coals—a dastardly act that violated xenia (sacred guest-friendship). He was memorialized as the first murderer.

Zeus however took pity on Ixion. He purified him of murder and brought him into Olympus as a guest. While in Olympus, Ixion attempted to seduce Hera, Zeus’ wife. Zeus tested him and created a cloud shaped like Hera called Nephele. Ixion united with the cloud, thinking it was Hera.

As a result of Ixion’s union with Nephele, the Centaurs were born. Ixion was punished as a consequence of his betrayal. He was bound to a fiery, spinning wheel and condemned to rotate eternally through the sky.

Pindar’s Pythian Ode (Lines 21–24) describes Ixion being punished by having his feathered wheel spin through the air as a warning to mortals.

The Names

Ixion: The Scholia on Pindar, Pythian 2.40 derives the name from the word ixos, which literally means birdlime or a sticky substance used to trap birds. Although rejected by modern scholars, the imagery attested by the scholion is actually appropriate. The myth works as a real metaphor for observed cometary motion. Cometary rotation is examined and confirmed by David Jewitt in his paper entitled “Cometary rotation, an overview”, 1997.

Phlegyas: Ixion’s father’s name derives from phlego, “to burn, set on fire, blaze”. Related nouns/adjectives :phloga /phlóx= flame. A fitting metaphor for a bright shining celestial object.

Dia : was the wife of Ixion. Dia’s name is most likely a feminine form derived from Dios (Zeus), and it is connected to the Proto-Indo-European root dyeu-, meaning “sky,” “brightness,” or “god”.

Deioneus: was depicted as the father of Dia wife of Ixion. The name is likely from dei “to divide, destroy”, so the destroyed one.

According to the myth Deioneus demanded payment or compensation for the marriage. Ixion refused. Deioneus seized Ixion’s horses as security. Ixion retaliated by inviting him to a feast and killed him by pushing him into a pit of fire.

This section of the myth is evidently metaphorical for the apparition of a comet traveling towards and then disappearing behind the sun.

Astronomical description of a Comet’s path:

Approach: As a “dirty snowball” of ice and dust falls from the outer Solar System toward the Sun, solar heat begins to turn its ice into gas (sublimation).

Activation: This gas creates a fuzzy atmosphere called a coma (Nephele). Solar wind and radiation push this material away, forming two distinct tails (dust and gas) that always point away from the Sun.

Perihelion: The comet reaches its closest point to the Sun. Here, it is at its hottest, fastest, and most visually spectacular, sometimes even breaking apart under the intense heat and gravity (encapsulated as the killing of Deioneus).

The second part of the myth relates to the comet reappearing:

Zeus took pity on Ixion and he purified him of murder. He brought him into Olympus as a guest. While there Ixion attempted to seduce Hera, Zeus’ wife. Zeus tested him and created a cloud shaped like Hera called Nephele. Ixion united with the cloud, thinking it was Hera. From Ixion and Nephele a son was born who in turn fathered the Centaurs. Hera notably was signified as the Queen of Heaven, in other words she acts as yet another metaphor for the sky.

Astronomical description of a Comet’s return path:

Retreat: As it rounds the Sun and heads back into deep space, it initially remains bright, but eventually cools down. The sublimation stops, the tails vanish, and the coma disappears.

Dormancy: The comet returns to a frozen, dark state, trailing a path of debris that can later cause meteor showers on Earth (encapsulated as the birth of the centaurs), until its orbit pulls it back toward the Sun to start the process over. Hence the image of the ever returning rock.

What were the Centaurs?

The centaurs are commonly depicted as being creatures who were half man and half horse. The myth likewise has been commonly interpreted as relating to the sudden appearance of horsemen in northern Greece. This may or may not have been the case, but its true relevance has hitherto been completely overlooked.

Indeed in the earliest references to centaurs they are not depicted as half man half horse. The first written mentions of them are in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. Homer refers to them as solely as pheres oreskoioi/ “beasts of the mountains” / “mountain beasts”

Even their collective name as centaurs makes no reference to horses. The term centaur (kentauros) has an etymology that is still debated, but the most widely accepted theory suggests it literally means stinging bull or bull-goad. Ken-is derived from the Greek verb kentein, meaning to sting, to goad, or to pierce and -tauros the Greek word for bull.

Mount Pelion
The focal point of the centaur myth is Mount Pelion. Mount Pelion in central Greece is highly susceptible to landslides due to its complex geology—composed mainly of metamorphic rocks like schists, quartzites, gneisses, and marbles—and its steep, rugged terrain. These formations are often covered by a thick, loose mantle of weathered material, which acts as a primary source for slope failures (Geomorphological and Hydrological Analysis of Landslide-Prone Basins: A Case Study from Mount Pelion, Central Greece, Chrysafi, Aikaterini-Alexandra et al, 2025).

Mount Pelion has a real reputation for large landslides, both in antiquity and today. It is a steep, forested mountain in Thessaly overlooking the Aegean. Its terrain makes it especially prone to slope failures. Several factors combine to precipitate landslides there: heavy rainfall, steep gradients, geology (layers of loose sediment and weathered rock can slip when wet), deforestation and fires, and finally earthquakes. The region is seismically active.

Storm Daniel in 2023 caused catastrophic flooding and massive landslides across Thessaly, including Pelion villages like Makrinitsa and Zagora—roads collapsed, slopes gave way, and entire hillsides shifted. Recurrent winter storms still trigger rockfalls and mudslides, often cutting off the mountain roads.

Thus is should come as no surprise therefore to learn that Centaurs centred on Mt Pelion remain grounded as violent terrestrial hybrid metaphors, depicted as savagley attacking organized human settlements. In the myth they are depicted as use stones, tree trunks, and improvised weapons rather than crafted arms and they fight in disordered melees, as opposed to structured seried ranks as in conventional warfare.

The Lapiths
The people they attack are the Lapiths, they are depicted as human and the final victors in the conflict. The etymology of the name is uncertain. However the name bears a striking resemblance to the words laas (stone/ boulder) and pithos (large round storage jar), the latter acting as a metaphor for the shape and size of the boulder as opposed to a simple stone, however no surviving ancient source cites this interpretation. The king of the Lapiths is remembered as Pirithous the son of Ixion. The etymology of Pirithous is also uncertain, but the most accepted breakdown is peri around and thoos / theo to rush / run. Meaning: to move very fast. So it would appear that even this aspect of the myth memorializes in some way the consequences of the apparition and associated landslides.

Thus according to the author’s analysis the region centered on Mt Pelion suffered devastating landslides which were linked to the1266 BC apparition of Halley’s comet. In the Chronicon of Eusebius (as later continued and translated into Latin by Jerome), the Centauromachy—the battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs is placed in the mythological timeline to around 1246 BC.

Was an impact event or airburst the cause of the landslides? Interestingly examples exist in Etruscan art of winged centaurs. The Etruscans according to some ancient sources originated in Lydia (Arzawa) passed through Thessaly and then moved westwards. (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 1.28–1.30.; Herodotus, Histories 1.94)

Centaurus

Mythology knows of a figure called Centaurus who was depicted as the son of Ixion and Nephele. It was he who was said to have mated with Magnesian horses who in turn gave birth to the ‘tribe’ of centaurs. That this event happened sometime after the 1266 BC apparition is supported by Pindar who states (Pythian 2.21–48): Ixion … having mated with a cloud …fathered a son …who later mated with the mares of the Magnesian mountains and produced a wondrous race.

The Horse is a metaphor in Greek mythology which evidently symbolized swift terrestrial movement. If such swift movement was located in the sky then wings were added to the imgery (as in the case of Pegasus). However mainstream Greek imagery consistently depicted centaurs without wings, therefore land based. The mares of the Magnesian mountains were never real horses but instead depictions of moving boulders during a landslide!

The Lefkandi Centaur which dates to c. 900 BC is a terracotta figurine. It is considered the oldest surviving representation of a centaur. Centaurs began appearing frequently on Greek pottery during the Geometric Period (c900-700 BC). In these early depictions, centaurs often appeared as a complete human (including human front legs) with the rear of a horse attached to their back. The modern standard—a human torso joined at the waist to a horse’s neck—didn’t become the norm until the 6th century BC. Pindar (c. 518–438 BC) was the earliest surviving author to explicitly describe them as half-man and half-horse and popularized the narrative of their origin from the union of Ixion and the cloud Nephele.

The human part of the centaur evidently acted as an allegory for energy. The Centaur therefore should not be simply interpreted as a memory of invading horsemen. The motif of halfman/half horse was used as a metaphor for a major natural catastrophe which occurred in Thessaly subsequent to an apparition of Halley’s Comet.

Gideon and Abimelech

Interestingly the Chronicon of Eusebius (via Jerome) aligns the Argonauts with the Hebrew judge Gideon. He states: “Argonautae, Oedipus, et Gedeon” (AM 2759). This date converts to c1266–1261 BC depending on manuscript reconstruction. Elsewhere he situates Gideon’s son Abimelech within the same timeframe.

It is evident given this synchronism that Abimelech is also a metaphor for the apparition. According to the author’s calculations the apparition of Halley’s Comet occurred towards the end of Gideon’s rule. This is where it get interesting. Gideon’s name translates as “hewer” / “one who cuts down” or more interpretively: “feller (of trees / enemies)”. Intereestingly the name conjures up images of the Tunguska asteroid airburst of 1908 AD

In brief, Abimelech, the son of the judge Gideon, was depicted as a ruthless, self-proclaimed king who murdered 69 of his 70 brothers to seize power in Shechem. His three-year reign was marked by civil war, destruction, and a violent death when a woman dropped a stone on his head during a siege. (Judges 8:31–9:6).

Astronomical Coincidences?

The word Shechem interestingly translates as a settlement located on a mountain ridge, thereby mirroring the centaur narrative. Likewise the number 69 aligns well as an inclusive count for the number of years between the apparition of Halley’s Comet in 1334 and 1266 BC, with 70 years being the average during that period. Likewise Abimelech’s three year may in fact be a reference to Enke’s Comet which has an orbital period of 3.3 years. It was the first periodic comet discovered after Halley’s Comet. It is believed to be the originator of several related meteor showers known as the Taurids (V. Porubcan; L. Kornos; I. P. Williams (2006). “The Taurid complex meteor showers and asteroids”).

Without going into a longer analysis it is evident that this Biblical narrative also commemorates the apparition of 1266 BC and its aftermath in a manner parallel to the Greek myth. The section in Judges finishes as follows:

“Next Abimelek went to Thebez (the name significantly only appears in this narrative, and translates as “the bright place“) and besieged it and captured it. Inside the city, however, was a strong tower, to which all the men and women—all the people of the city—had fled. They had locked themselves in and climbed up on the tower roof. Abimelek went to the tower and attacked it. But as he approached the entrance to the tower to set it on fire, a woman dropped an upper millstone on his head and cracked his skull. Hurriedly he called to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and kill me, so that they can’t say, ‘A woman killed him.’” So his servant ran him through, and he died.” (Note the metaphors of the sword and the millstone).

Next: Halley’s Comet 1266 BC and the Voyage of the Argo

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