Myth & LegendGreek → English
Pegasus
/ˈpɛɡəsəs/noun
The winged horse of Greek myth, and the northern constellation named for him.
The Greek roots
Πήγασος
Pḗgasos
Pegasus, the winged horse
Literally: “of the springs, disputed”
Follow a root:Πήγασος1 word
The story of the word
Hesiod ties the name to πηγαί, the springs of Ocean beside which the horse was born, and Pegasus strikes open the Hippocrene spring on Helicon with a hoof. Many modern scholars prefer a Luwian source, pihassas, lightning, which would make him a storm creature before he was anything else. His link with poetic inspiration is not ancient at all: in Greek he belongs to Bellerophon and the killing of the Chimaera, and the poets claimed him in the Renaissance.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
Same family
Chimaerahippopotamushippodrome
In a sentence
The company put a winged Pegasus on its tankers for fifty years.
Bellerophon needed a golden bridle from Athena before Pegasus would let him mount.