Since the sun travels across the sky during the day, rising in the morning and setting in the evening, the Ancient Greeks imagined it being pulled by a fiery chariot. They named the god who symbolized the sun “Helios”.
Four flaming winged horses were responsible for pulling the sun god across the sky. These horses have many different names depending on the source material. In one tale, the son of Helios, Phaethon (who was a mortal man and not a god) asked to drive the chariot. Helios warned against this, as it was extremely difficult and dangerous, but Phaethon persisted. When the chariot got too close, the earth would burn, and if it drifted too far away, it would freeze. In order to stop this disaster, the god Zeus is said to have struck Phaethon with a bolt of lightning.
