 |
MY PEGASUS PAGE.
|
P E G A S U S
A
winged horse that causes the stream Hippocrene to spring from
Mount Helicon with a blow of his hoof
- Dictionary explanation
The origins of Pegasus, the mythical winged horse, are entwined with various other ancient myths. It can be tracked back to the story of Poseidon, a quite hot-tempered god of the world's oceans who, taking the form of a horse (or in some versions a bird), seduced Medusa in a temple dedicated to Athena.
Athena was offended by this sexual use of her temple, so she turned Medusa's hair into serpents. Later, when Perseus ecapitated Medusa, Pegasus was born of Medusa's blood.
It was not easy for Pegasus on Mount Olympus - no one looked like him, and his descent did not make matters any easier, either.
In order to survive, he needed an alert mind, enormous strength, and a huge energy reserve. Pegasus had the latter in the form of a magic well on Mount Helikon that, as the story goes, sprang up at the spot where he struck the ground with his hoof. The secret of this mythical energy drink found its way to mortal man through the beautiful muses who lived near the well. The mythical elixir is the inspiration for today's refreshing source of energy - Flying Horse.
Pegasus became the mount of Bellerophon after being caught with the aid of a golden bridle given to him by Athena. What is lesser know is that Bellerophon was originally called Hipponous (Hippo means horse in Greek), the son of Glaucus who was a ghost known to frighten horses.
At first vilified, a plot was invoked to send Bellerophon on a series of tasks, with the expectation that he would perish in the attempts (sounds a little like the tasks of Heracles). On one of the tasks, while mounted on Pegasus, Bellerophon killed the Chimaera. On another he defeated the tribes of the Solymia and the Amazons. Eventually, having completed the tasks, Bellerophon was received as a hero.
While Pegasus appears on many ancient Greek coins, the images on Corinth's coins are best known (with Athena on the other side of the coins). Corinth uses the image of Pegasus as a reference to Bellerophon, who only recieved that name after murdering a Corinthian named Bellerus.
 |
 |
Fantasy Gathering Ring
