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Pegasus was the winged horse best known for
his association with the Greek hero Bellerophon. The manner of
the horse’s birth was unusual, to say the least. Its
mother was Medusa, the Gorgon, who in her youth was famed for
her beauty, particularly her flowing hair. Many suitors
approached her, but the one who took her virginity was
Poseidon, who is both god of the sea and god of horses.
Unfortunately, the seduction happened in the temple of Athene.
Outraged by having her temple defiled, the goddess Athene
changed Medusa into a snake-haired monster whose gaze could
turn men to stone.
When Perseus decapitated Medusa, Pegasus
and the warrior Chrysaor sprang from her body. The name Pegasus
comes from the Greek word pegai, meaning ‘springs’ or
‘waters’. Chrysaor’s name means ‘golden
sword’, in description of the blade he carried when he
was born. Chrysaor played no further part in the story of
Pegasus; he later became father of Geryon, the three-bodied
monster whom Heracles slew.
Pegasus stretched his wings and flew away
from the body of his mother, eventually arriving at Mount
Helicon in Boeotia, home of the Muses. There, he struck the
ground with his hoof and, to the delight of the Muses, from the
rock gushed a spring of water which was named Hippocrene,
‘horse’s fountain’. The goddess Athene later
came to see it.
Only the front half of the horse is depicted in the sky, but enough to include his wings. His body is outlined by four stars that form the Square of Pegasus (although one of these is now assigned to Andromeda). In front of Pegasus is Equuleus, the foal, whose head alone is shown. Illustration from the Uranographia of Johann Bode.
Pegasus is sometimes depicted as the steed
of Perseus, but this is wrong. He was, in fact, ridden by
another hero, Bellerophon, son of Glaucus. King Iobates of
Lycia sent Bellerophon on a mission to kill the Chimaera, a
fire-breathing monster that was devastating Lycia. According to
Hesiod the Chimaera was the offspring of Typhon and Echidne,
and had three heads, one like a lion, another like a goat and
the third like a dragon. But Homer said in the Iliad that it had
the front of a lion, the tail of a snake and a middle like a
goat, the description that most other authors have followed.
Bellerophon found Pegasus drinking at the
spring of Peirene in Corinth and tamed him with a golden bridle
given by Athene. Ascending into the sky on the divine horse,
Bellerophon swooped down on the Chimaera, killing it with
arrows and a lance. After undertaking other tasks for King
Iobates, Bellerophon seems to have got over-inflated ideas, for
he attempted to fly up on Pegasus to join the gods on Olympus.
Before he got there he fell back to Earth; but Pegasus
completed the trip and Zeus used him for a while to carry his
thunder and lightning, according to Hesiod. Zeus later put
Pegasus among the constellations.
Eratosthenes doubted this story because, he
said, the horse in the sky has no wings. It is true that Aratus
does not mention wings on the celestial horse, but he
identifies the constellation as Pegasus, and Ptolemy in his Almagest definitely
mentions wings, so Eratosthenes must be mistaken. Germanicus
Caesar is in no doubt. Pegasus, he writes, ‘beats his
swift wings in the topmost circle of the sky and rejoices in
his stellification’. Eratosthenes repeats the claim of
the playwright Euripides that this constellation represents
Melanippe, daughter of Chiron the centaur (see Equuleus).
In the sky, only the top half of the horse
is shown – even so, it is still the seventh-largest
constellation. Its body is represented by the famous Square of
Pegasus whose corners are marked by four stars. In Greek times,
one star was considered common with Andromeda, marking both the
horse’s navel and the top of Andromeda’s head. Now,
it is allocated exclusively to Andromeda, and is known as Alpha
Andromedae. The remaining three stars of the Square are Alpha
Pegasi, also known as Markab from the Arabic for
‘shoulder’; Beta Pegasi, called Scheat from the
Arabic meaning ‘the shin’; and Gamma Pegasi, or
Algenib, meaning ‘the side’ in Arabic. A star on
the horse’s muzzle, Epsilon Pegasi, is called Enif from
the Arabic meaning ‘nose’. Germanicus Caesar said
it lies ‘where the animal chews the bit, his mouth
foaming’.
In the Chinese sky, there was no Square of
Pegasus. Instead, both the west and east sides of the modern
square were part of separate constellations. Alpha and Beta
Pegasi were linked to form Shi, the palace of the Son of Heaven (a code name
for the Emperor). Shi was also the name given to the 13th lunar
mansion. Six stars around Beta Pegasi – Lambda, Mu,
Omicron, Eta, Tau and Nu Pegasi – formed Ligong (“royal
villa”), denoting the Emperor’s holiday resort,
although it was also seen as a temple or shrine. Gamma Pegasi
was joined with Alpha Andromedae to form Bi, the eastern wall of the
Emperor’s palace or temple, also seen as the
Emperor’s private reference library. The 14th lunar
mansion was named Bi after this constellation.
In the northern part of present-day
Pegasus, Iota Pegasi and three other stars formed Jiu, while Pi Pegasi
and 1 Lacertae were part of Neichu, the two constellations representing a mortar
and pestle respectively, presumably for preparing food. Near
the border with Vulpecula was Ren, five stars in the shape of a stick-figure
human; however, sources differ as to which stars were involved.
Six stars to the south of Alpha Pegasi,
including Rho and Sigma, were Leidian, thunder and lightning. Completing the stormy
picture, two other constellations across the border in Pisces
represented a clap of thunder and a rain cloud. Epsilon and
Theta Pegasi were joined with Alpha Aquarii to form Wei, an angular-shaped
constellation representing the roof of a house; Wei, the 12th Chinese
lunar mansion, takes its name from this group.
© Ian Ridpath. All rights reserved
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