Pegasus

The origin of the name Pegasus is derived from the Greek word meaning strong. There are many arguments concerning the Pegasus, here is one of them. Some believe the Pegasus have a magical horn like that on a unicorn.

Another interesting debate is over a winged centaur called a pegataur. The word is derived from a combination of "Pegasus" and "centaur". The being resembles that combination, with the wings emerging from the barrel.

Now then according to Greek mythology, the Pegasus is the winged horse that was fathered by Poseidon, god of the sea, and Medusa. Medusa was a woman who had snakes for hair. She was so hideously ugly that people would turn to stone at just a glance of her face. When her head was cut off by the Greek hero Perseus, the horse Pegasus sprang forth from her pregnant body. His galloping later created the well Hippocrene on the Helicon (a mountain in Boeotia).

One day when the horse was drinking from the well Pirene on the Acrocotinth, Bellerophon, the Corinthian hero was able to capture the horse to help him complete his quest. Athena, the goddess of wisdom, had given Bellerophon certain instructions on how to do this in a dream. Upon waking, he found a golden bridle lying next to him. The gods then gave him Pegasus for killing the monster Chimera. When he attempted to mount the horse, it threw him off and rose to the heavens, where it became a constellation (north of the ecliptic).

In another version, Bellerophon killed the Chimera while riding on Pegasus. When he later attempted to ride Pegasus to the summit of Mount Olympus, Zeus sent a gadfly to sting the horse. Pegasus threw Bellerophon off its back. I have also read that Pegasus did eventually returned to Mount Olympus and lived in Zeus's stables. When he was needed, he would carry Zeus's thunderbolts to him.

This page was last updated on: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 at 3:43 PM