P29.1 PEGASOS
Museum Collection: Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, Florida, USA
Catalogue Number: Tampa 86.104
Beazley Archive Number: N/A
Ware: Apulian Red Figure
Shape: Bell krater
Date: ca 360 - 350 BC
Period: Late Classical
SUMMARY
This vase fragment depicts Bellerophon's capture of the winged horse Pegasos by the Peirene spring of Korinthos. The horse's head is shown set in a bridle.
PEGASOS (or Pegasus) was an immortal, winged horse which sprang forth from the neck of Medousa when she was beheaded by the hero Perseus. Pegasos was tamed by Bellerophon, a Korinthian hero, who rode him into battle against the fire-breathing Khimaira. Later, after the hero attempted to fly to heaven, the gods caused the horse to buck, throwing him back down to earth. Pegasos continued to wing its way to heaven where it took a place in the stables of Zeus.
The horse was also placed amongst the stars as a constellation, whose rising marked the arrival of the warmer weather of spring and seasonal rainstorms. As such he was often named thunderbolt-bearer of Zeus. In the constellation myths, Pegasos ("Springing Forth") may have represented the blooming of spring whilst Khimaira ("Frosty Air" ?) (perhaps winter-rising Capricorn) was the cold chill of winter.
| PARENTS |
| [1.1] POSEIDON & MEDOUSA (Hesiod Theogony 278, Apollodorus 2.32 & 2.42, Hyginus Fabulae 151 & Astronomica 2.18, Ovid Metamorphoses 4.781 & 6.119) [1.2] MEDOUSA (Pindar Olympian Ode, Nonnus Dionysiaca 24.270) |
THE BIRTH OF PEGASUS
Hesiod, Theogony 280 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :"But when Perseus had cut off the head of Medousa there sprang from her blood stout-hearted Khrysaor and the horse Pegasos so named from the pegai (springs) of Okeanos, where he was born."
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2. 42 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"When he [Perseus] saw Medousa, he beheaded her. As soon as her head was severed there leaped from her body the winged horse Pegasos and Khrysaor, the father of Geryon. The father of these two was Poseidon."
Lycophron, Alexandra 840 ff (trans. Mair) (Greek poet C3rd B.C.) :
"The harvester [Perseus] who delivered of her [Medousa’s] pains in birth of horse [Pegasos] and man [Khrysaor] the stony-eyed weasel whose children sprang from her neck.”
Strabo, Geography 8. 6. 20 (trans. Jones) (Greek geographer C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"Pegasos, a winged horse which sprang from the neck of the Gorgon Medousa when her head was cut off."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 151 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"From Medusa, daughter of Gorgon, and Neptunus [Poseidon], were born Chrysaor and horse Pegasus."
Ovid, Metamorphoses 4. 786 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"While deep sleep held fast Medusa and her snakes, he [Perseus] severed her head clean from her neck; and from their mother's blood swift-flying Pegasus and his brother [Khrysaor] sprang . . . he [Medousa], it's said, was violated in Minerva's [Athena’s] shrine by the Rector Pelagi (Lord of the Sea) [Poseidon]."
Ovid, Metamorphoses 6. 119 ff :
"As a bird [Poseidon mated with] the snake-haired mother of the flying steed [i.e. Medousa mother of Pegasos]."
Ovid, Fasti 3. 449 ff (trans.Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"Men believe it [Pegasos] sprang with its blood-spattered mane from the butchered Medusa’s pregnant neck. As it glided above the clouds and beneath the stars, the sky was its earth and wings were its feet."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 31. 13 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"As Medousa was slain [by Perseus], the neck was delivered of its twin birth, the Horse [Pegasos] and the Boy [Khrysaor] with the golden sword."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 24. 270 ff :
"[Perseus] shore off the snaky swathe of one Medousa, while her womb was still burdened and swollen with young, still in foal of Pegasos; what good if the sickle played the part of childbirth Eileithyia, and reaped the neck of the pregnant Gorgon, firstfruits of a horsebreeding neck?"
|
|
|
PEGASUS & THE SPRING OF HIPPOCRENE
The Hippokrene was the spring of the Mousai (goddess Muses) on Mount Helikon in Boiotia. It was said to have burst forth beneath the hoof of the winged horse Pegasos.Aratus, Phaenomena 206 ff (trans. Mair) (Greek astronomical poem C3rd B.C.) :
"The huge [constellation] Horse (Hippos) . . . He [Pegasos] it was, men say, that brought down from lofty Helikon the bright water of bounteous Hippokrene. For not yet on Helikon’s summit trickled the fountain’s springs, but the Horse smote it and straightway the gushing water was shed abroad at the stamp of his forefoot, and herdsmen were the first to call that stream the fountain of the Horse. From the rock the water wells and never shalt thou see it far from the men of Thespiai; but the Horse himself circles in the heaven of Zeus and is there for thee to behold."
Strabo, Geography 8. 6. 20 (trans. Jones) (Greek geographer C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"The same horse [Pegasos], it is said, caused Hippu-krene (Horse Fountain) to spring up on Helikon when he struck with his hoof the rock that lay below that mountain."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 9. 31. 3 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"Ascending about twenty stades from this grove [of the Mousai on Mt Helikon, Boiotia] is what is called the Hippokrene (Horse’s Fountain). It was made, they say, by the horse of Bellerophon striking the ground with this hoof."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 31. 9 :
"Among the means of cleansing [by ritual purification] which they say they [the people of Troizenos, Argos] used to cleanse Orestes was water from Hippokrene (Horse’s Fountain}; for the Troinzenians too have a fountain called the Horse’s, and the legend about it does not differ from the one which prevails in Boiotia. For they, too, say that the earth sent up the water when the horse Pegasos struck the ground with his hoof, and that Bellerophontes came to Troizen to ask Pittheus to give him Aithra to wife."
Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses 9 (trans. Celoria) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"When the Mousai (Muses) sang, heaven, the stars, the sea and rivers stood still, while Mount Helikon, beguiled by the pleasure of it all, swelled skyward till, by the will of Poseidon, Pegasos checked it by striking the summit with his hoof."
Callistratus, Descriptions 7 (trans. Fairbanks) (Greek rhetorician C4th A.D.) :
"On Helikon--the spot is a shaded precinct sacred to the Mousai (Muses)--near the torrent of the river Olmeios and the violet-dark spring of Pegasos, there stood the [statues of the] Mousai."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 18 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Pegasus, offspring of Neptunus [Poseidon] and the Gorgon Medusa, who on Helicon, a mountain of Boeotia, opened up a spring by striking the rock with his hoof. From him the spring is called Hippocrene."
Ovid, Fasti 3. 449 ff (trans.Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"It [Pegasos] had only just protested its strange bridling [by Bellerophon], when its light hoof dug Aonia’s spring [the Hippokrene of Mt Helikon]."
Ovid, Metamorphoses 5. 254 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"Helicon, the Musae’s mountain home. Alighting there she [Athena] stopped and thus addressed the learned sisters [the Mousai] : `there has reached my ears a tale of a new fountain that burst forth beneath the hooves of flying Medusaeus [Pegasos]. That is my journey‘s purpose, my desire to see the miracle. I saw that horse brought into being from his mother‘s blood. Uranie replied : `Whatever cause may bring you to our home, you find our hearts most welcoming. The tale indeed is true; the author of the spring is Pegasus.’ She led Pallas [Athena] to the sacred spring. The waters issuing from his hoof‘s hard stroke long held her wondering eyes; then she gazed round at the green bowers of the ancient woods, the caves and grottoes and the spangled lawns with all their countless flowers."
Propertius, Elegies 3. 3 (trans. Goold) (Roman elegy C1st B.C.) :
"I dreamed that lying in the soft shade of Helicon, where flows the fountain of Bellerophon’s horse [Pegasos], I possessed the power to proclaim my lyre’s accompaniment Alba’s kings and their deeds."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 44. 6 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"A fountain [Hippokrene] bubbled on the spot where the horse’s [Pegasos’] wet hoof scratched the surface of the ground and made a hollow for the water which took its name from him."
|
|
|
|
PEGASUS & BELLEROPHON
Hesiod, Theogony 325 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :"But Khimaira was killed by Pegasos and gallant Bellerophon."
Hesiod, Catalogues of Women Fragment 7 (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :
"And when he [Bellerophon] began to roam, his father [Poseidon] gave him Pegasos who would bear him most swiftly on his wings, and flew unwearying everywhere over the earth, for like the gales he would course along. With him Bellerophon caught and slew the fire-breathing Khimaira."
Pindar, Olympian Ode 13. 63 ff (trans. Conway) (Greek lyric C5th B.C.) :
"[Bellerophon] once strove in vain beside Peirene's spring, and suffered much, seeking to yoke the snake-haired Gorgo's offspring, Pegasos. Till Pallas [Athena], goddess maid, brought him the bridle and golden headband, and behold a dream was truth. `Sleep not, Aiolid king,' said she, `but take this charm of steeds, and offer the Horse-Tamer, your sire, a snow-white bull, and show to him this bridle.' Such words, as he lay slumbering in the dark, it seemed the maiden of the shadowy aegis spoke unto him, and he leapt to his feet and seized the magic bit, that lay beside him on the ground; and went with joy to find the prophet of his country's people the son of Korianos. And he made known to him the whole issue of this strange matter--how that he had lain the whole night through upon the goddess' altar, as the seer had foretold him, and how the child of Zeus whose sword is lightning, in her own hands brought him the golden charm that tames the savage spirit. And the prophet bade him obey at once the magic vision, and to Poseidon, the earth-holder, to sacrifice the strong-limbed bull. Then too that he should build an altar with all speed to Athene, queen of steeds. Yet the gods' power can lightly bring to pass such things as will deny both the sworn word and all the hopes of men. Thus with all zeal mighty Bellerophon seized the winged steed, setting between his jaws the soothing charm, and mounting him, in his bronze panoply played him in sport, to try his pace. And once, with him, he smote the Amazons, from the chill bosom of the lonely air, that archered host of women-kind; and felled Khimaira breathing fire, and slew the Solymoi. His fate--'twere best unspoken. But Pegasos dwells in the ancient stalls of Zeus upon Olympos."
Pindar, Isthmian Ode 7. 44 ff :
"Pegasos winged high threw down to earth his lord Bellerophon, who thought to reach the abodes of heaven, and share the company of Zeus. Sweets gained unrightly await an end most bitter."
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2. 32 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Bellerophon mounted Pegasos, his winged horse born of Medousa and Poseidon, and flying into the air brought down the Khimaira with his bow and arrows."
Strabo, Geography 8. 6. 20 (trans. Jones) (Greek geographer C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"Peirene [a spring of the city of Korinthos] was wont to rise over the surface and flow down the sides of the mountain. And here, they say, Pegasos, a winged horse which sprang from the neck of the Gorgon Medousa when her head was cut off, was caught while drinking by Bellerophon. And the same horse, it is said, caused Hippu-krene (Horse Fountain) to spring up on Helikon when he struck with his hoof the rock that lay below that mountain."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 1. 9 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"Among the reliefs on the base of the statue of Poseidon [at his main sanctuary on the Isthmos of Korinthos] are the sons of Tyndareus, because these too are saviours of ships and of sea-faring men. The other offerings are images of Calm and of Sea, a horse like a whale from the breast onward, Ino and Bellerophontes, and the horse Pegasos."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 3. 5 :
"The Korinthians have baths in many parts of the city . . . The most famous of them is near the Poseidon. It was made by the Spartan Eurykles, who beautified it with various kinds of stone, especially the one quarried at Krokeai in Lakonia. On the left of the entrance stands a Poseidon, and after him Artemis hunting. Throughout the city are many wells, for the Korinthians have a copious supply of flowing water . . . but the most noteworthy is the one by the side of the image of Artemis. Over it is a Bellerophontes, and the water flows through the hoof of the horse Pegasos."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 4. 1 :
"Athena, they say. Was the divinity who gave most help to Bellerophontes, and she delivered to him Pegasos, having herself broken in and bridled him."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 31. 9 :
"They [the people of Troizenos in Argolis], too, say that the earth sent up the water when the horse Pegasos struck the ground with his hoof, and that Bellerophontes came to Troizen to ask Pittheus to give him Aithra to wife."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 57 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Iobates was reluctant to kill the hero [Bellerophon], but sent him to kill the Chimaera [Khimaira], a three-formed creature said to breathe forth fire. Likewise : forepart lion, rearpart snake, middle she-goat. This he slew, riding on Pegasus, and he is said to have fallen in the Aleian plains and to have dislocated his hip."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 18 :
"[Proetus] knowing that he [Bellerophon] had the horse Pegasus, sent him to the father of Antia (some call her Sthenoboea), for him to defend his daughter’s chastity and send the youth against the Chimera, which at that time was laying waste with flames the country of the Lycians. Bellerophon was victor, and escaped, but after the creation of the spring, as he was attempting to fly to heaven, and had almost reached it, he became terrified looking down at the earth, and fell off and was killed. But the horse is said to have flown up and to have been put among the constellations by Jove [Zeus]."
Ovid, Fasti 3. 449 ff (trans.Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"[Pegasos] had only just protested its strange bridling [by Bellerophon], when its light hoof dug Aonia’s spring [the Hippokrene of Mt Helikon]."
Apuleius, The Golden Ass 8. 16 ff (trans. Walsh) (Roman novel C2nd A.D.) :
"I reflected that it was panic more than anything which had induced the celebrated Pegasus to take to the air, and that the tradition that he had wings was justified because he leapt upward as high as heaven in his fear of being bitten by the fire-breathing Chimaera."
Oppian, Cynegetica 1. 225 ff (trans. Mair) (Greek poet C3rd A.D.) :
"To Horses beyond all mortal creatures cunning Nature has given a subtle mind and heart . . . A horse [Pegasos] carried above the clouds him [Bellerophon] that slew the Khimaira."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 11. 142 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"Quickwing Pegasos threw Bellerophontes and sent him headlong down from the sky, although he was of the seed of Earthshaker [Poseidon] and the horse himself shared the kindred blood of Poseidon."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 28. 167 ff :
"Pegasos flying high in the air as swift in his course as the wandering wind, threw Bellerophontes."
|
|
|
PEGASUS THE CONSTELLATION & HORSE OF ZEUS
Hesiod, Theogony 280 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :"Pegasos, soaring, left the earth, the mother of sheep flocks, and came to the immortals, and there he lives in the household of Zeus, and carries the thunder and lightning for Zeus of the counsels."
Pindar, Olympian Ode 13. 92 ff (trans. Conway) (Greek lyric C5th B.C.) :
"Pegasos dwells in the ancient stalls of Zeus upon Olympos."
Plato, Phaedrus 246 (trans. Lamb) (Greek philosopher C4th B.C.) :
"A pair of winged horses and a charioteer. Now the winged horses and the charioteers of the gods are all of them noble and of noble descent . . . Zeus, the mighty lord, holding the reins of a winged chariot, leads the way in heaven, ordering all and taking care of all; and there follows him the array of gods and demigods, marshalled in eleven bands [the twelve Olympians]."
Aratus, Phaenomena 206 ff (trans. Mair) (Greek astronomical poem C3rd B.C.) :
"The huge [constellation] Horse (Hippos) [is Pegasos] . . . the Horse himself circles in the heaven of Zeus and is there for thee to behold."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 18 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Constellation Horse. This sign Aratus and many others have called Pegasus, offspring of Neptunus [Poseidon] and the Gorgon Medusa . . . As he [Bellerophon] was attempting to fly to heaven, and had almost reached it, he became terrified looking down at the earth, and fell off and was killed. But the horse [Pegasos] is said to have flown up and to have been put among the constellations by Jove [Zeus]."
Ovid, Fasti 3. 449 ff (trans.Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"Now when stars spangle the deep blue heavens, look up: you’ll see the neck of the Gorgonian horse [the constellation Pegasos]. Men believe it sprang with its blood-spattered mane from the butchered Medusa’s pregnant neck. As it glided above the clouds and beneath the stars, the sky was its earth and wings were its feet. It had only just protested its strange bridling [by Bellerophon], when its light hoof dug Aonia’s spring [the Hippokrene of Mt Helikon]. Now it enjoys the sky, which it wings sought before, and gleams resplendent with five stars and ten."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 37. 265 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"Pegasos flying on high quickly cut the air on his long wings."
|
|
THE PEGASI HORSES
Pegasoi or winged horses (hippoi pteretoi) occur in ancient art drawing the chariots of various gods included Helios the sun and Selene the moon. The hero Pelops was also given a chariot drawn by winged horses by the god Poseidon. A species of winged horse also occurs in Greek legend. The animals were said to be native to the mysterious southern land of Aithiopia. See Pegasoi Aithiopikoi for more information.Plato, Critias (trans. Lamb) (Greek philosopher C4th B.C.) :
"Here [in the temple of Poseidon on the mythical island of Atlantis] was the [statue of the] god himself standing in a chariot--the charioteer of six winged horses [Pegasoi]."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 17. 7 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"[Amongst the scenes depicted on the chest of Kypselos dedicated at Olympia :] Oinomaos is chasing Pelops, who is holding Hippodameia. Each of them has two horses, but those of Pelops have wings."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 19. 8 :
"[Amongst the scenes depicted on the chest of Kypselos dedicated at Olympia :] Next come two-horse chariots with women standing in them. The horses have golden wings, and a man is giving armour to one of the women. I conjecture that this scene refers to the death of Patroklos; the women in the chariots, I take it, are Nereides, and Thetis is receiving the armour from Hephaistos."
- Hesiod, Theogony - Greek Epic C8th-7th B.C.
- Hesiod, Catalogues of Women - Greek Epic C8th-7th B.C.
- Pindar, Odes - Greek Lyric C5th B.C.
- Plato, Critias - Greek Philosophy C4th B.C.
- Plato, Phaedrus - Greek Philosophy C4th B.C.
- Apollodorus, The Library - Greek Mythography C2nd A.D.
- Lycophron, Alexandra - Greek Poetry C3rd B.C.
- Aratus, Phaenomena - Greek Astronomy C3rd B.C.
- Strabo, Geography - Greek Geography C1st B.C. - C1st A.D.
- Pausanias, Description of Greece - Greek Travelogue C2nd A.D.
- Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses - Greek Mythography C2nd A.D.
- Callistratus, Descriptions - Greek Rhetoric C4th A.D.
- Hyginus, Fabulae - Latin Mythography C2nd A.D.
- Hyginus, Astronomica - Latin Mythography C2nd A.D.
- Ovid, Metamorphoses - Latin Epic C1st B.C. - C1st A.D.
- Ovid, Fasti - Latin Epic C1st B.C. - C1st A.D.
- Propertius, Elegies - Latin Elegy C1st B.C.
- Apuleius, The Golden Ass - Latin Epic C2nd A.D.
- Oppian, Cynegeticaa - Greek Poetry C3rd A.D.
- Nonnos, Dionysiaca - Greek Epic C5th A.D.
