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Pegasus, being the horse of the Muses, has always been at the service of artists. One poet, Schiller tells a story of Pegasus being sold by a needy poet and put to the cart and the plough. He was not fit for such service, and his ignorant master could make nothing of him. But a youth stepped forth and asked if he could try to ride him. As soon as he was seated on his back, Pegasus, who had appeared vicious at first, rose kingly, a spirit, a god! He unfolded the splendour of his wings and soared towards heaven. He can still be seen as the star constellation, Pegasus.
In his great work, Henry V, William Shakespeare wrote of the magnificent Pegasus:
"...I will not change my horse with any that treads but on four pasterns.
Ca, ha! he bounds from the earth, as if his entrails were hairs; le cheval volant, the Pegasus, chez les narines de feu!
When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the earth sings when he touches it;
the basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes."
There's a haunting visual interpretation of Pegasus on the url from which the above comes. Do take a look at it:
http://www.pegasus-gallery.org/pegmyth.html
Hi Geoff,
Yes, I read a simple version of the story of Bellerophon to my son fairly recently. I believe Bellerophon wanted to take on the Chimera (3 different heads, all breathing flame), which was terrorising his land. Being a strategist well ahead of his time, he thought that the Chimera could be beaten from the air, i.e. with the aid of Pegasus.
In this version of the story, he managed to break Pegasus (assisted by a special bridle), but then took pity on the magnificent animal, so set it free, deciding he must find another way to beat the Chimera. Pegasus (of course) returns to him, deciding to help of his own free will. By implication, had he not done so, the Chimera would have won in the battle that ensued, as Pegasus has a fairly hard time of it.
I was a little confused as to where Perseus came into the equation, probably because one of those wonderful Ray Harryhausen (movie) re-tellings of the Perseus myth had Perseus taming Pegasus. But having checked it up using the wonderful site below:
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/p/pegasus.html
the Perseus story came first. Pegasus was the offspring of Poseidon and Medusa, possibly created by Medusa's head being dropped into the sea.
I love the way myths work, and that there is a sense of natural order in something wonderful emerging from something unspeakably repellent.
How is Pegasus linked to the muses, thus to poetry?
Well, quite apart from WW's comprehensive Pegasus-Muses link below, Pegasus clearly stands for imagination. Imagination is often depicted as a pair of wings (flights of imagination or airy fairy nonsense?). Attaching those wings to a fast horse, which would in any case give the sensation of flight, sort of doubles the effect. And, of course, Pegasus is usually depicted as a white horse, which is itself a creature of the imagination (I think).
In a way the foul beasts (tyrants, those who rule by might and fear) are beaten by creative thinking. However, there's always a sting in the tail (or a gadfly on the arse) in that when the heroes start crediting themselves, rather than their gifts, they suffer and often die. Good ol' hubris.
Fisk
What, like Jocky Wilson?
http://exotica.fix.no/gallery/games/images/j/JockyWilsonsDartsCh.jpg
Many would indeed, think him a legend:
http://personal.boo.net/~tdi/events/paula.htm
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