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the Charioteer
Capella, bright and yellow, is one of the brightest stars in the sky. With four other stars it makes a large five-sided shape on the Milky Way, above Orion.
The charioteer is often named as Erichthonius, a king of Athens said to have invented the four-horse chariot. Capella means 'little she-goat': the goat that fed the infant Zeus.
Capella looks like one star but is two large yellow stars circling each other closely, about 43 light years away.
The oldest record of these stars comes from Mesopotamia, where they formed GAM, a crook or curved sword.
Erichthonius is not the only charioteer named here.
Bedouin sky-watchers made groups of animals, one star for each animal, and the stars of Auriga were a herd of goats.
Capella and four other bright stars formed Wuche, the Five Chariots of the celestial emperors, which also stood for the grain harvest.
In ancient Hindu astronomy Capella was the heart of Brahma.
In the Marshall Islands, Capella is Ligedaner, the mother of the stars.
For the Boorong people of Victoria, Capella is Purra, a kangaroo hunted and killed by the twins Castor and Pollux.
The oldest record of these stars comes from Mesopotamia, where they formed GAM, a crook or curved sword. The crook stood for a goatherd or shepherd, an early hint of the goats still tied to this part of the sky.
Erichthonius is not the only charioteer named here. Others say it is Myrtilus, the charioteer of King Oenomaus, set in the sky by his father Hermes after he was betrayed and killed. The late Latin poets Claudian and Nonnus said it was Phaethon, who lost control of the Sun's chariot. The goat that fed Zeus is linked to the "horn of plenty": one of her horns, broken off by accident, became the cornucopia. Two small stars beside Capella are the Haedi, "the Kids".
Bedouin sky-watchers made groups of animals, one star for each animal, and the stars of Auriga were a herd of goats. To the Bedouin of the Negev and Sinai, Capella was "Capella of the Pleiades", because it helped show where the Pleiades were.
Capella and four other bright stars formed Wuche, the Five Chariots of the celestial emperors, which also stood for the grain harvest. Small groups of three stars were poles for tethering horses, and other stars here were a pond where the sun set.
In ancient Hindu astronomy Capella was the heart of Brahma. The Incas called it Colca and saw it as closely tied to the lives of shepherds. The ancient Balts called it "Thunder's Goat".
In the Marshall Islands, Capella is Ligedaner, the mother of the stars. She told her sons that whoever first reached an island in the east would be King of the Stars. Only the youngest, the Pleiades, let her ride in his canoe, and with her help he won the race. In Tahiti, Capella was Tahi-ari'i, wife of Fa'a-nui (Auriga). Hawaiians included it in a group of stars that helped them steer at sea.
For the Boorong people of Victoria, Capella is Purra, a kangaroo hunted and killed by the twins Castor and Pollux. The Bororo of Brazil see Auriga's southern stars as the end of a huge caiman's tail, with Orion as its body.
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