Pegasus

Read what writers of myth have written on Pegasus on this Theoi Project webpage

Hevelius, Firmamentum, 1690, depicts the head of Aquarius (Ganymedes) encroaching onto the heads of the two horses; Pegasus and Equuleus. To compensate the father of Ganymedes, King Laomedon of Troy, for abducting his son Zeus gave him two horses [1]. Allen (Star Names) says that some of the mythologists said that Equuleus represented Cyllarus, given to Pollux by Juno. In myth the Gemini Twins ride two horses "the immortal steeds Cyllarus and Harpagus" [2]. It seems that Equuleus is Cyllarus, and Harpagus must be Pegasus.

Johann Bode, Uranographia, 1801

In myth Pegasus carries the thunderbolts of Zeus. Pegasus, also called Sonipes, 'Noisy-footed', "becoming the Thundering Horse of Jove that carried the divine lightning" [Star Names].

There is a type of fish, called the 'pegasus sea moth' of the family Pegasidae. They live in monogamous pairs, scratching the sand on the ocean floor. Pegasus sea-moths derive their name from the specialized morphology of the pectoral fins which are enlarged and form 'wings' which they use to 'fly' through the water. Captive individuals have also been observed shedding their entire skin in one piece with a rapid jump every few days [3]. To jump out of skin is a metaphor for excitement, or shock.

"But when Perseus had cut off the head of Medousa [Medusa i.e. Algol] there sprang from her blood stout-hearted Khrysaor and the horse Pegasos so named from the 'pegai' (springs) of Okeanos, where he was born" [Hesiod, Theogony 280 4]

The word Pegasus is believed to be related to Greek pegai, or pege, a spring, Greek pegazo 'spring forth' or 'to gush forth' [5]. Pegasus caused springs to gush forth as he pawed the earth with his hoof, on Mount Helicon, and another on Hippocrene ('horse spring'). There is a phonetic similarity between the English word 'peg', and Greek pege, spring. One of the uses for pegs is to determine the levels of underground water or springs; English peg comes from German pegel, 'gauge rod, watermark'; hence a semantic correspondence between these words.

"peg (paxillus) is derived from stake (palus)" [The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 7th century AD, p.233.]

Tracing the word peg in Ernst Klein's, book Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary leads to 'Old English paegel, 'a small measure, wine vessel, gill', from Medieval Latin pagella, 'a measure', related to the word 'pail' [a bucket - The Arabs knew the square of Pegasus as Al Dalw, the Water-bucket]. Latin pagella, 'column', is a diminutive of pagina, 'page' (pages were rolled up columns). The word page leads to the Indo-European root *pag- [a number of people have speculated that the word 'Pegasus' might belong to this root]. *pag- Also pak- 'To fasten'. Derivatives: fay¹ (to join or fit closely, from OE fegan, and Germanic fogjan), fang (a seizing tooth), fangle (to capture or seize), vang (a rope running from the peak of a gaff to a ship's rail or mast, used to steady the gaff, from Germanic *fangam, *fangiz), newfangled (one who seized new things), compact¹, impact, impinge (frequentative of Latin impingere, to dash against), spinto (a lyric operatic dramatic voice, from Latin pangere, to fasten). Root form *pak-; pax, pay¹, peace, appease, pacific, pacify, (these words from Latin pax, peace < 'a binding together by treaty or agreement'), pac-, peac-, peas- (peace, calm), pact, impact, patio, (these words from Latin pacisci, to agree). Suffixed form *pak-slo-; pale¹, palisade, pawl (a hinged or pivoted device adapted to fit into a notch of a ratchet wheel to impart forward motion or prevent backward motion), peel³ (a fortified house or tower), pole² (rod), impale, travail (from Vulgar Latin *tripaliare, probably from Latin tripalis 'having three stakes '; work, especially when arduous or involving painful effort; the labor of childbirth), travel, pale² (from Latin palus, stake, fixed in the ground, palus 'fence'), paling (fence of stakes), palette (board for artist’s paints), peel² (tool for moving hot bread), probably Latin pala, spade. Lengthened-grade form *pag-; pagan (French, paysan, from pays, 'country'), peasant, from Latin pagus, “boundary staked out on the ground,” district, village, country; (Paganalia was the festival of 'sowing,' celebrated every year after the planting of the seeds), page¹, pageant, (these words from Latin pagina, 'trellis to which a row of vines is fixed,' hence (by metaphor) column of writing, page), propagate, propaganda (from Latin propagare, to propagate < 'to fix before' pro-, before, in front), pectin (gelling agent: found in ripe fruits), pegmatite (granite, sometimes rich in rare elements such as uranium, tungsten, and tantalum), Areopagus (the highest judicial and legislative council of ancient Athens), mastopexy (plastic surgery in which the breasts are lifted or reshaped, from Greek pegnunai, to fasten, coagulate, with derivative pagos < *pag-o-, mass, hill). [Pokorny pak- 787. Watkins]

"The sides of leaves are called pages (pagina) because they are bound (compingere, perfect tense compegi) to one another.” [The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 7th century AD, p.142.]

Pegasus is said to be derived from pege, or pagei, spring. In a translation of the 1654, Blaeu Atlas of Scotland, it says that pege, or pagei, spring; is related to Greek phagos (I have not seen these words related by any other source).

"Today this stream [Avon] is commonly called Fagot; this name is a diminutive from Greek phagos, by which name various rivers are designated, notably the famous Phagus in Elis; it is derived from pege or pagei spring, this from the Hebrew phacah, that is to flow, pour". http://www.nls.uk/digitallibrary/map/early/blaeu/927.html

John Ayto, Dictionary of Word Origins explains the meaning of Greek phagos:

Phagos or fagus is modern scientific name for the beech tree (from the Indo-European root *bhago- 'Beech tree', and related to the word book). The wood from this tree was used to make writing surfaces. "Among early relatives Latin fagus meant 'beech' (whence the tree's modern scientific name), but Greek phagos, for example, referred to an 'edible oak.' Both come from a hypothetical Indo-European *bhagos, which may be related to Greek phagein 'eat' (from the Indo-European root *bhag-) (which enters into a number of English compounds, such as phagocyte, literally 'eating-cell,' geophagy, 'earth-eating,' and sarcophagus). If this is so, the name may signify etymologically 'edible tree,' with reference to its nuts, 'beech mast.' The Old English word bece’s immediate source was Germanic *bokjon, but this was a derivative; the main form boko produced words for 'beech' in other Germanic languages, such as German buche and Dutch beuk, and it survives in English as the first element of buckwheat, so named from its three-sided seeds which look like beech nuts. It is thought that book may come ultimately from bok- 'beech,' on the grounds that early runic inscriptions were carved on beechwood tablets" [John Ayto, Dictionary of Word Origins]. The rune of Phagos is concerned with ancient knowledge.

The root *pag- gives the word page, and the root *bhago- gives the word book.

Another meaning of peg is a nail, horses have one toe and one large nail on each foot. A peg can also be a nail for hanging things on. Pegasus is a horse that is particularly associated with using his hooves, it was with his hoof that he scratched (ungula rupit) or scraped the surface of the ground and caused the springs to gush forth. Called Sonipes, 'Noisy-footed', "as his hooves could be heard thundering across the skies in a storm".

Pegasus, so named from the Greek pegai (springs), Greek pegazo, 'spring forth' or 'gush forth' [6]. Pegasus is said to have sprang from the blood of Medusa after she was killed by Perseus [7]. Pegasus is the creator of springs through pawing the ground and causing springs to spring up. The word spring means three things; a leap or jump; the source of water, source of something; and the season in which plants spring up and grow. Spring is related to the word spurn which originally meant 'to kick', from Old High German spurnan to kick, Old Indian sphurati, 'kicks with the foot', Latin spernere 'to spurn'. In myth Bellerophon attempts to fly to heaven on the back of Pegasus. Pegasus kicked, causing Bellerophon to fall off his back. After spurning Bellerophon, Pegasus continued on to Mount Olympus on his own. Klein gives an explanation for the root and the likely relatives of the word spurn, "from Old English spurnan, 'to kick with the foot, drive away', ... Greek spairein 'to move convulsively', sphura, 'hammer', spuron, 'ankle', Latin spernere, 'to reject, spurn', Lithuanian spiriu, spirti, ... Lithuanian sparnas, 'wing', Middle Irish seir (for *speret-s), 'heel', Welsh ffer, ffern, 'heel', and possibly also Greek spaira 'a sphere, ball, globe'. Compare Sphyraena, sphere. Compare also sperm, spore. Compare also spring".

A cognate of spurn: Middle Irish seir (for *speret-s), 'heel', Welsh ffer, ffern, 'heel'; Tarsus, a Cilician city attributed its name to the feather which fell to the ground from Pegasus at birth, or in another version of the myths where Bellerophon fell from Pegasus. The tarsus is known as the hock in many domestic mammals. It is the anatomical homologue of the heel of the human foot [8].

The Paganalia was the festival of sowing seeds, or propagating seed. The word sperm which Klein suggests is cognate with spring and spurn, is from Greek sperma, sperm seed < 'that which is scattered'. Sperma: something sown, i.e. seed (including the male 'sperm'). Sperm comes from the Indo-European root *sper- 'To strew'. Derivatives: sprawl, sprout, spruce, spritz, spritzer, sprit, bowsprit, spray², spread, Diaspora, sperm¹, spore, sporo-, exosporium, sporadic, spray¹. [Pokorny 2. (s)p(h)er- 993. Watkins] [Pegasus was created by the blood of Medusa’s severed head mixed with the foam and sand of the sea - Pegasus is adjacent to Pisces, the sea. The sperm mixing with the semen?]

The word spirit [related to; aspire, conspire, esprit, expire, inspire, perspire, respire, sprightly, transpire] has associations with Pegasus. It was the action of his hoof pawing the ground that the Hippocrene (horse-springs), the inspiring fountain of the Muses sprang forth. "Everywhere the winged horse struck hoof to earth, an inspiring spring burst forth" [9]. In poetry, the phrase "My Pegasus will not go this morning" means the author's brain will not work (lacks inspiration), and "I am mounting my Pegasus" means he's going to write (he's becoming inspired), and "I am on my Pegasus" means he's engaged in writing [10]. The word peg also means 'a drink of spirits'. Horses, more than any other animal, are referred to as spirited. "The use of 'spring' (pege) alludes to the Jacob tradition, while 'welling up' (hallomenou) is a verb used for the action of the Spirit of God in the Septuagint (e.g., Judges 15:14 and 1 Samuel 10:10)" [11]. "Sperm was thought to contribute the spirit to the matter of the maternal egg" [12].

Hylas soon found a spring, which the people of the neighborhood call Pegai. ... a Nymphe Ephyatie (of the water), was just emerging from the limpid water as Hylas drew near. And there, with the full moon shining from a clear sky, she saw him in all his radiant beauty and alluring grace. Her heart was flooded by desire; she had a struggle to regain her scattered wits. But Hylas now leant over to one side to dip his ewer in: and as soon as the water was gurgling loudly round the ringing bronze she threw her left arm round his neck in her eagerness to kiss his gentle lips. Then with her right hand she drew his elbow down and plunged him in midstream …  http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NymphaiMysiai.html

Ephyatie might be called a water-sprite (a doublet of spirit), who springed Hylas (springe means to trap or snare), a sprite is also the word for a large, dim, red flash that appears above active thunderstorms in conjunction with lightning. In myth Pegasus carries the thunderbolts of Zeus on Mount Olympos.

Pegasus is described as a white horse "snowy white in color" [Star Names]:

"Then I saw heaven open and there was a white horse. Its rider is called Faithful and True....His eyes were like a flame of fire, and he wore many crowns on his head....The armies of heaven followed him riding on white horses...on his robe and on his thigh was written the name: King of kings and Lord of lords" Revelations 19:11. [13]

[The winning sperm might relate to adjacent Equuleus, the racehorse, 'the first horse' in a race. The sperm and egg together might be the two kid goats in Auriga]

Ingenium. - Seneca. - Plato. - Aristotle. - Helicon. - Pegasus. - Parnassus. - Ovid. - First, we require in our poet or maker (for that title our language affords him elegantly with the Greek) a goodness of natural wit. For whereas all other arts consist of doctrine and precepts, the poet must be able by nature and instinct to pour out the treasure of his mind, and as Seneca saith, Aliquando secundum Anacreontem insanire jucundum esse; by which he understands the poetical rapture.  And according to that of Plato, Frustrà poeticas fores sui compos pulsavit.  And of Aristotle, Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixturâ dementiæ fuit. Nec potest grande aliquid, et supra cæteros loqui, nisi mota mens. Then it riseth higher, as by a divine instinct, when it contemns common and known conceptions. It utters somewhat above a mortal mouth. Then it gets aloft and flies away with his rider, whither before it was doubtful to ascend. This the poets understood by their Helicon, Pegasus, or Parnassus; and this made Ovid to boast, “Est deus in nobis, agitante calescimus illo, Sedibus æthereis spiritus ille venit.” [“There is a god within us, and when he is stirred we grow warm; that spirit comes from heavenly realms.”] [Discoveries Made Upon Men and Matter, and Some Poems, by Ben Johnson]

The astrological influences of the constellation given by Manilius:

Pegasus the winged Horse will appear and gallop aloft in the heavens. It will bring forth people endowed with swiftness of movement and limbs alert to perform every task. One man will cause his horse to wheel round in caracoles, and proudly mounted on its back he will wage war from on high; horseman and soldier in one. Another will possess the ability to rob the racecourse of its true length such is his speed that he will seem to dissemble the movement of his feet and make the ground vanish before him. Who more swiftly could fly back from the ends of the earth as messenger or with light foot to the earth's ends make his way?  He will also heal a horse's wounds with the sap of common plants, and will know the herbs which bring aid to an animal's limbs and those which grow for the use of man. [Manilius, Astronomica, 1st century AD, book 5, p.350-353.]

© Anne Wright 2008