Seeing chariots in the night sky is one of the easiest examples of reading a story from the visual movements of celestial objects. The gliding progression of bright chariots around a racetrack closely mimicked the movements of planets around the sky. The sun god Helios carried the sun across the sky in his chariot every day.
One of the more fascinating details in myth is that the various gods and goddesses are depicted in chariots drawn by their “sacred” animals. This begins to make a lot of sense when one sees that the chariot of Demeter is drawn by snakes, because her constellation is the snake-bearer (Ophiuchus). Artemis is often associated with Ursa Major, whose legs of the bear were once called “the leaps of the gazelle.” In myth, Artemis’ chariot is drawn by gazelles.
Auriga has been called the charioteer since very early times. In fact, back then the spring equinox occurred when the sun was in Taurus, not at the first degree of Aries that we have locked into our calendars. Auriga historically shared the bright star at the end of the Bull’s horn with Taurus, although Auriga lies above the Zodiac belt. Nevertheless, it would have appeared to pull the constellations of the zodiac through the sky as the year progressed, lending it the name of “holder of the reins”.
Decoding the Night 