Once upon a time there were 10 suns in the sky, according to Chinese mythology. They would travel individually with their mother, goddess Xihe, until one day they decided to appear in the sky at the same time. The heat from the combined suns, however, was so immense that the father of the suns, Dijun, ordered each of them to behave. But they did not heed his warnings. So Dijun sent the archer Yi to shoot the suns away, killing nine of them and leaving only one.