King Oenomaus of Pisa refused to let his daughter Hippodamia marry anyone. Every suitor had to beat him in a chariot race, and the odds were rigged from the start: his horses were a gift from Ares, unbeatable by any mortal team. Prince Pelops tried to win fair and, when that failed, bribed Myrtilus, the king’s charioteer, to swap the wheel’s bronze linchpins for wax ones. Mid-race, the wheel came off and the king died in the crash.
Pelops got the throne and the girl, but he wasn’t in the mood to share credit. He threw Myrtilus off a cliff into the sea, little pet goat and all. Hermes, messenger god and Myrtilus’s father, wasn’t about to let his son fade into nothing: he lifted him into the sky, goat included, where the two of them became the constellation Auriga, the Charioteer.
Lyrics
(Yeah, watch him fall…)
(Broken wheels…)
King Oenomaus ruled the land with an iron hand,
Challenging suitors who had come for his daughter’s land.
Four divine stallions from Ares to lead the race,
Leaving the contenders broken on the sandy place! (beheaded in the dust!)
Then came Prince Pelops with a smile and a silver tongue,
Bribing the charioteer whose honor was quickly undone:
“Pull out the bronze linchpins, boy, and you’ll share her bed!”
Myrtilus took the poisoned gold, and righteousness was dead! (cheap treason!)
He slipped out the bronze and he shoved in the pins of wax,
A murderous trap laid down upon the sandy tracks!
The sun beat hard on the thunder of Grecian wood,
The wheels tore off where the screaming king once stood! (axle crushed!)
And roll, roll the chariot across the sky!
Broken reins burning bright in the reaper’s eye! (burning bright!)
Golden Capella, the goat upon his chest,
A fallen charioteer who will never find his rest!
Auriga, don’t run no more!
Treason shines forever on the northern floor! (shine on!)
The king lay crushed in the wreckage, the crown was won,
Myrtilus claimed his reward in the setting sun.
Holding his little pet goat up against his chest,
An innocent creature clinging to his coat and vest. (soft little eyes…)
Pelops just laughed with a heart as cold as stone,
And shoved the charioteer over the edge alone! (down to the sea!)
Hermes looked down at the dark and foaming blue,
And lifted his broken boy where the cold winds blew! (raised to the sky!)
And roll, roll the chariot across the sky!
Broken reins burning bright in the reaper’s eye! (burning bright!)
Golden Capella, the goat upon his chest,
A fallen charioteer who will never find his rest!
Auriga, don’t run no more!
Treason shines forever on the northern floor! (shine on!)
Now pinned in the dark, a pentagon carved in space,
Holding the gentle goat in a stone embrace! (Capella stays!)
Four burning suns in a knot of golden light,
While the little Kids shiver through the winter night! (The Haedi cry!)
Deep in his belly, three open swarms ignite:
Thirty-six, thirty-seven, thirty-eight burning bright! (Messier clusters!)
The guilty charioteer and the innocent breath,
Tied in Auriga by a single drop of death!
(Hold the reins!)
(Hold the goat!)
And roll, roll the chariot across the sky!
Broken reins burning bright in the reaper’s eye! (burning bright!)
Golden Capella, the goat upon his chest,
A fallen charioteer who will never find his rest!
Auriga, don’t run no more!
Treason shines forever on the northern floor! (shine on!)
Myrtilus… the charioteer.
Flung from the cliffs of pride…
Forever clutching the little goat in the sky.
(Capella shines)
(Pins of wax…)
Auriga circles the dark.
Like every Astronomika Beats song, this one hides more than one astronomical clue. If you already caught them, tell us in the comments what you found. If not, give it another listen.