Among the different interpretations of the myth of Auriga ("the coachman"),
the most charming results that that identifies it with the mythological
character Mirtilo, child of the amazzones Mirte and of the god Ermes (for the
Romans Mercury, the god messenger of the Olimpo) and coachman of the king Enomao.
He didn't want that his daughter Ippodamia got married because an
oracle had afore said him the death for hand of the future son-in-law, or, according
to another version, because it was in love of shet. For the sand away the pretenders
he had promised his daughter in bride to who had beaten him in
a run of bighe: the biga of the competing had however to transport Ippodamia,
that diminished the speed, but also the same attention of the conductor. The coach
of the challenger had to avoid to be reached by that of Enomao, driven by Mirtilo:
in case of defeat, the pretender was beheaded. Pelope, a youth of which the same
Ippodamia was in love, didn't make him frighten and, of accord with Mirtilo
(also him secretly in love of Ippodamia), it replaced the pivots of the wheels of
the real wagon with others of wax. Result: Pelope won the competition and lost
Enomao the life falling from the wagon that it was smashed in run..
The three accomplices (Mirtilo, Ippodamia and Pelope) ran away for escaping to
the revenge of the population and Mirtilo, in the attempt to possess with violence
Ippodamia, taking advantage of a brief absence of Pelope, he was pushed
in sea from a precipe from Pelope. Before dying, however, Mirtilo cast a curse
against Pelope and his descendants, that suffered therefore continuous
tragedies (you see Atreo, Tieste, Agamennone).
The constellation is imagined as a auriga with in arm a goat (Capella, that
in Latin is note "small goat") and two kids (stars Headi, zeta and eta Aurigae).
The Greek astronomers knew how to explain the presence of these animals narrating
that the two nymphs Aix and Elice, the nannies of Zeus, didn't have milk, so owed
give him as nurse a goat, Amaltea, that weaned him. The animal had given birth
justy in that period two kids. When Zeus became adult, he wanted for
gratitude to make eternal in the sky his mother together with the the two children.