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| A winged horse son of Poseidon God of the sea and the Gorgon Medusa Pegasus sprang fromMedusa's neck when she was killed by the hero Perseus. Shortly after its birth, the magical steed struck the ground with his hoof on Mount Helicon, and on the spot a spring, later sacred to the Muses and believed to be a source for poetic inspiration, began to flow. All longed in vain to catch and tame the creature, and this became the obsession of Bellerophon, prince of Corinth. On the advice of a seer, Bellerophon spent a night in the temple of the goddess Athena. As he slept, the goddess appeared to him with a golden bridle and told him that it would enable him to capture Pegasus. When Bellerophon awoke, he found the golden bridle beside him, and with it he easily captured and tamed the winged horse. Excerpt from the Encyclopedia Britannica: In Greek mythology, Pegasus was a winged horse that sprang from the blood of the Gorgon Medusa as she was beheaded by the hero Perseus. With Athena's (or Poseidon's) help, another Greek hero, Bellerophon, captured Pegasus and rode him first in his fight with the Chimera and later while he was taking vengeance on St Heneboea (Anteia), who had falsely accused Bellerophon. Subsequently Bellerophon attempted to fly with Pegasus to heaven but was unseated and killed, the winged horse becoming a constellation and the servant of Zeus. Pegasus' story became a favorite theme in Greek art and literature, and in late antiquity Pegasus' soaring flight was interpreted as an allegory of the soul's immortality; in modern times it has been regarded as a symbol of poetic inspiration. |
| Information came from Luvz Mystical Creatures |
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