Auriga (oh-RYE-gah) The Charioteer - like many characters, Auriga has an unclear origin in myth. The constellation is associated with goats and the premise of this appears to involve Amaltheia, a goat-nymph that suckled Zeus as an infant in Crete. Auriga is generally depicted with a goat draped over his left shoulder, which is represented by the star Capella (meaning \lquote she goat\rquote , \lquote small goat\rquote or simply the \lquote goat star\rquote ). The \lquote kids\rquote are said to represent the children of Amaltheia. Another explanation linking charioteers to goats is that apparently it was common practice for horse keepers to also tend the other livestock of the estate.
However, the apparent leader in the mythological field contends that the charioteer was Erichthonius, a son of Hephaestus (Vulcan) and Mother Earth \endash as in, no human mother. It is this story that follows below:
Athena was the Greek Goddess of War, among other pursuits attributed to her. She derived no pleasure from battle and was more adept at settling disputes before they broke out into open conflict. She would bear no arms in time of peace and if the occasion arose that any were needed, generally borrowed weapons and armor from Zeus. However, she could be terrible in battle and never lost, not even against Ares (Mars) himself and was well versed in tactics and strategies.
Once, not wishing to borrow arms from Zeus, she requested that Hephaestus make her a set of armor to call her own. He readily agreed to do this and when Athena asked about payment, indicated he would undertake the task quote, 'for love". Athena misconstrued the implication of this statement, as we are to see.
Next, in steps Poseidon (Neptune), who heard about the situation and knew that Hephaestus thought Athena was pretty hot & quite desirable. So Poseidon decided to play a practical joke and informed Hephaestus that Athena was coming to visit with the consent of Zeus and if he were to have his way with her, well that would be okay with no questions asked... The humor in this, at least from the Olympian resident view, is that Hephaestus was one horrid, obnoxious, ill-tempered individual, who when born to Hera (Juno), was so ugly that she chucked him out of Olympus to rid herself of the embarrassment. Later he proved his worth by making beautiful and useful items and Hera returned him to the heavens and set him up with a fine smithy and workshop were he became the God of the forge and smith.