Pegasus
Webster's Dictionary [1]
(1): (n.) A winged horse fabled to have sprung from the body of Medusa when she was slain. He is noted for causing, with a blow of his hoof, Hippocrene, the inspiring fountain of the Muses, to spring from Mount Helicon. On this account he is, in modern times, associated with the Muses, and with ideas of poetic inspiration.
(2): (n.) A northen constellation near the vernal equinoctial point. Its three brightest stars, with the brightest star of Andromeda, form the square of Pegasus.
(3): (n.) A genus of small fishes, having large pectoral fins, and the body covered with hard, bony plates. Several species are known from the East Indies and China.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [2]
in Greek mythology, a winged horse which arose with Chrysaor from the blood of the Gorgon Medusa, when she was slain by Perseus. He is said to have received his name because he first made his appearance beside the springs (πηγαί ) of Oceanus. He afterwards ascended to heaven, and was believed to carry the thunder and lightning of Zeus. According to later authors, however, he was the horse of Eos. The myth concerning Pegasus is interwoven with that of the victory of Bellerophon over the Chimaera. Bellerophon had in vain sought to catch Pegasus for his combat with this monster, but was advised by the seer Polyidos of Corinth to sleep in the temple of Minerva, and the goddess appearing to him in his sleep gave him a golden bridle and certain instructions, upon which he acted, and made use of Pegasus in his combat with the Chimaera, the Amazons, and the Solymi. Pegasus is also spoken of in modern times as the horse of the Muses, which, however, he was not. The ancient legend on this subject is that the nine Muses and the nine daughters of Pieros engaged in a competition in singing by Helicon, and everything was motionless to hear their song, save Helicon, which rose ever higher and higher in its delight, when Pegasus put a stop to this with a kick of his hoof, and from the point arose Hippocrene, the inspiring spring of the Muses. But that Pegasus is the horse of the Muses is entirely a modern idea, being first found in the Orlando Innamorato of Boiardo.
The Nuttall Encyclopedia [3]
The winged horse, begotten of Poseidon, who sprung from the body of Medusa when Perseus swooped off her head, and who with a stroke of his hoof broke open the spring of Hippocrene on Mount Helicon, and mounted on whom Bellerophon slew the Chimera, and by means of which he hoped, if he had not been thrown, to ascend to heaven, as Pegasus did alone, becoming thereafter a constellation in the sky; this is the winged horse upon whose back poets, to the like disappointment, hope to scale the empyrean, who have not, like Bellerophon, first distinguished themselves by slaying Chimeras.
