Discusión:Auriga

Myth Auriga is usually identified with Phaethon, the son of the sun god Helios and Clymene. (From the 5th century BCE, Apollo, originally a deity of light, was more and more interpreted as a sun-god). Responding to the desire to confirm that Helios was his real father, Phaethon confronted him about it. To prove his paternity, Helios promised to give him whatever he wanted. He asked for the permission to drive the sun-chariot through the heavens for a single day. Helios regretted his promise, and sought long and hard to dissuade his son, but a promise is promise; he had to let him make the attempt.

Phaethon soon discovered that the chariot was much harder to handle than he had imagined. The horses soon realized the charioteer was different, and veered over the sky. Eventually he completely lost control. The chariot grazed the earth and the Nile hid its head. It soared into the far north, causing the normally sluggish dragon to writhe. The Earth cried out for aid and Zeus hurled a thunderbolt at Phaethon.

He died and fell into the River Eridanus.

Another story tells that Auriga may represent Erichthonius (the fourth king of ancient Athens), whose lameness inspired him to invent the chariot. We also see Auriga depicted as a warm-hearted herdsman holding a she-goat, with two kids nearby. The she-goat raised Zeus when he was an infant, by giving him her milk. Zeus was hidden in Mt. Ida from his father Cronus. Cronus habitually ate his children, and Zeus was the only survivor.