Auriga = Fuhrmann

Milchstraßensternbild.

Griech. Heniochus, der Zügelhalter; Hippolytos, der Rosselenker.
Auriga, Aurigator. Erichthonius. Myrtilus, Fuhrmann des Oenomaus. Arab. "der mit Zügeln versehene". (Ideler34)

... Very old constellation. A sculpture from Nimroud is an almost exact representation of Auriga with the Goat carried on the left arm; while in Graeco-Babylonian times the constellation Rukubi, the Chariot, lay here nearly coincident with the Charioteer, perhaps running over into Taurus ... Erechtheus, or more properly Erichthonius, son of Vulcan and Minerva, who, having inherited his father's lameness, found necessary some means of easy locomotion. This was secured by his invention of the four-horse chariot which not only well became his regal position as the 4th of the early kings of Athens, but secured for him a place in the sky. Manilius thus told the story:
Near the bent Bull a Seat the Driver claims,
Whose skill conferr'd his Honour and his Names.
His Art great jove admir'd, when first he drove
His rattling Carr, and fix't the Youth above.
- Vergil had something similar in his 3d Georgic

(Allen, Star Names5)

Alpha-Stern Capella, Doppel-Doppelsternsystem, Alpha Aurigae, galt früher als wichtiger Jahrespunkt. Name lat. "kleine Ziege". Griech. Mythologie: Amaltheia, die Ziege, (oder Nymphe) die Zeus als Pflegekind aufzog und ernährte, als er auf Kreta aufwuchs. Davon auch "Jovis Nutrix". Eine andere Sage erzählt, Zeus habe als Kind das Horn der Ziege abgebrochen und als cornu copiae, "Füllhorn", an den Himmel gesetzt. Der sechsthellste Stern am Nachthimmel und nach Arktur und Wega der dritthellste am Nordhimmel. Weitere Namen: Olenia. Indien: Brahma Ridaya, das Herz des Brahma. Aryaman Airyaman. China: Die fünf Wagen der fünf Kaiser.

Capella, in Babylon auch genannt "Führer des Jahres", diente offenbar einmal als wichtige Markierung zur Bestimmung des Jahresbeginns am Frühjahrs-Äquinoktiums:

Capella's place on the Denderah zodiac is occupied by a mummied cat in the outstretched hand of a male figure crowned with feathers; while, always an important star in the temple worship of the gate the Egyptian god Ptah, the Opener, it is supposed to have borne the name of that divinity and probably was observed at its setting 1700 B.C. from his temple, the noted edifice at Karnak near Thebes, the No Amon of the books of the prophets Jeremiah and Nahum. Another recently discovered sanctuary of Ptah at Memphis as was oriented to it about 5200 B.C. Lockyer thinks that at least five temples were oriented to its setting. It served, too, the same purpose for worship in Greece, where it may have been the orientation point of a temple at Eleusis to the goddess Diana Propyla; and of another at Athens. ...
The Akkadian Dil-gan I-ku, the Messenger of Light, or Dil-gan Babili, the Patron star of Babylon, is thought to have been Capella, known in Assyria as I-ku, the Leader, i.e. of the year; for, according to Sayce, in Akkadian times the commencement of the year was determined by the position of this star in relation to the moon at the vernal equinox. This was previous to 1730 B.C., when, during the preceding 2150 years, spring began when the sun entered the constellation Taurus; in this connection the star was known as the Star of Marduk, but subsequent to that date some of these titles were apparently applied to Hamal, Wega, and others whose position as to that initial point had changed by reason of precession. One cuneiform inscription, supposed to refer to Capella, is rendered by Jensen Askar, the Tempest God; and the Tablet of the Thirty Stars bears the synonymous Ma-a-tu; all this well accounting for its subsequent character in classical times, and one of the many evidences adduced as to the origin of Greek constellational astronomy in the Euphrates valley. The ancient Peruvians, the Quichuas appear to have devoted much attention to the stars; Colca, singularly prominent with their shepherds, as Capella was with the same class on the Mediterranean in ancient days; the Shepherd's Star has been applied to it by English poets. Tennyson, in some fine lines in his Maud, mentions it as "a glorious crown."

(Allen, Star Names5)

Sternbilder