Greek city of Lampsakos in Mysia
Bronze 2mm (1.45 grams) Struck circa 400-200 B.C.
Reference:  SNG France 1223-6
 Female head right, hair bound in chignon.
Forepart of Pegasus right.

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Pegasus
Bellerophon riding Pegasus (1914)
Sky
Parents	Poseidon  and Medusa
Siblings	Chrysaor
Mount	Mt. Olympus

Pegasus (Ancient Greek: Πήγασος, Pégasos, Latin Pegasus) is one of the best known mythological creatures in Greek mythology. He is a winged divine stallion usually depicted as pure white in colour. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa. He was the brother of Chrysaor, born at a single birthing when his mother was decapitated by Perseus. Greco-Roman poets write about his ascent to heaven after his birth and his obeisance toZeus, king of the gods, who instructed him to bring lightning and thunder from Olympus. Friend of the Muses, Pegasus is the creator of Hippocrene, the fountain on Mt. Helicon. He was captured by the Greek hero Bellerophon near the fountain Peirene with the help of Athena and Poseidon. Pegasus allows the hero to ride him to defeat a monster, the Chimera, before realizing many other exploits. His rider, however, falls off his back trying to reach Mount Olympus. Zeus transformed him into the constellation Pegasus and placed him up in the sky.

Hypotheses have been proposed regarding its relationship with the Muses, the gods Athena, Poseidon, Zeus, Apollo, and the hero Perseus.

The symbolism of Pegasus varies with time. Symbol of wisdom and especially of fame from the Middle Ages until the Renaissance, he became one symbol of the poetry and the creator of sources in which the poets come to draw inspiration, particularly in the 19th century. Pegasus is the subject of a very rich iconography, especially through the ancient Greek pottery and paintings and sculptures of the Renaissance. Personification of the water, solar myth, or shaman mount, Carl Jung and his followers have seen in Pegasus a profound symbolic esoteric in relation to the spiritual energy that allows to access to the realm of the gods on Mount Olympus.

In the 20th and 21st century, he appeared in movies, in fantasy, in video games and in role play, where by extension, the term "pegasus" (plural: "pegasi") is often used to refer to any winged horse.

Etymology

Pegasus, as the horse of Muses, was put on the roof of Poznań Opera House(Max Littmann, 1910)

The poet Hesiod presents a folk etymology if the name Pegasus as derived from pēgē "spring, well": "the pegai of Okeanos, where he was born."

A proposed etymology of the name is Luwian pihassas, meaning "lightning", and Pihassassi, a local Luwian-Hittite name in southern Cilicia of a weather god represented with thunder and lightning. The proponents of this etymology adduce Pegasus' role, reported as early as Hesiod, as bringer of thunderbolts to Zeus. It was first suggested in 1952 and remains widely accepted, but Robin Lane Fox (2009) has criticized it as implausible.

Pegasus and springs

According to legend, everywhere the winged horse struck his hoof to the earth, an inspiring spring burst forth. One of these springs was upon the Muses' Mount Helicon, the Hippocrene ("horse spring"), opened, Antoninus Liberalis suggested, at the behest of Poseidon to prevent the mountain swelling with rapture at the song of the Muses; another was at Troezen. Hesiod relates how Pegasus was peacefully drinking from a spring when the hero Bellerophon captured him. Hesiod also says Pegasus carried thunderbolts for Zeus.

Birth

There are several versions of the birth of the winged stallion and his brother Chrysaor in the far distant place at the edge of Earth, Hesiod's "springs of Oceanus, which encircles the inhabited earth, where Perseus found Medusa:

One is that they sprang from the blood issuing from Medusa's neck as Perseus was beheading her, similar to the manner in which Athena was born from the head of Zeus. In another version, when Perseus beheaded Medusa, they were born of the Earth, fed by the Gorgon's blood. A variation of this story holds that they were formed from the mingling of Medusa's blood, Pain and sea foam, implying that Poseidon had involvement in their making. The last version bears resemblance to the birth of Aphrodite, daughter of Zeus.

Bellerophon

Pegasus aided the hero Bellerophon in his fight against both the Chimera and the Amazons. There are varying tales as to how Bellerophon found Pegasus; the most common says that the hero was told by Polyeidos to sleep in the temple of Athena, where the goddess visited him in the night and presented him with a golden bridle. The next morning, still clutching the bridle, he found Pegasus drinking at the Pierian spring and caught Pegasus, and eventually tamed him.

Perseus

Parthian  era bronze plate depicting Pegasus ("Pegaz" in Persian), excavated inMasjed Soleyman, Khūzestān, Iran.

Michaud's Biographie universelle relates that when Pegasus was born, he flew to where thunder and lightning is released. Then, according to certain versions of the myth, Athena tamed him and gave him to Perseus, who flew to Ethiopia to help Andromeda.

In fact Pegasus is a late addition to the story of Perseus, who flew on his own with the sandals loaned him by Hermes.

Olympus

Pegasus and Athena left Bellerophon to forge some sweet goods and continued to Olympus where he was stabled with Zeus' other steeds, and was given the task of carrying Zeus' thunderbolts. Because of his faithful service to Zeus, he was honored with transformation into aconstellation. On the day of his catasterism, when Zeus transformed him into a constellation, a single feather fell to the earth near the city of Tarsus.

Legacy

World War II

The emblem of the World War II, British Airborne Forces, Bellerophon riding the flying horse Pegasus.

During World War II, the silhouetted image of Bellerophon the warrior, mounted on the winged Pegasus, was adopted by the United Kingdom's newly-raised parachute troops in 1941 as their upper sleeve insignia. The image clearly symbolized a warrior arriving at a battle by air, the same tactics used by paratroopers. The square upper-sleeve insignia comprised Bellerophon/Pegasus in light blue on a maroon background. The insignia was designed by famous English novelist Daphne du Maurier, who was married to the commander of the 1st Airborne Division (and later the expanded British Airborne Forces), General Frederick "Boy" Browning. According to The British Army Website, the insignia was designed by Major Edward Seago in May, 1942. The maroon background on the insignia was later used again by the Airborne Forces when they adopted the famous maroon beret in Summer 1942. The beret was the origin of the German nickname for British airborne troops, The Red Devils. Today's Parachute Regiment carries on the maroon beret tradition.

During the airborne phase of the Normandy invasion on the night of 5–6 June 1944, British 6th Airborne Division captured all its key objectives in advance of the seaborne assault, including the capture and holding at all costs of a vital bridge over theCaen Canal, near Ouistreham. In memory of their tenacity, the bridge has been known ever since as Pegasus Bridge.

Popular culture

The winged horse that has provided an instantly recognizable corporate logo or emblem of inspiration. Pegasus in Yu-Gi-Oh! is a evil man who wants to steal the Exodyssian pecies. The South American country of Ecuador launched its first a satellite, named "Pegaso" (Pegaus in Spanish) on April 26, 2013. Pegasus Seiya, the central character in the anime series Saint Seiya , (Knights of the Zodiac) takes his name "Pegasus" from the Pegasus Bronze Cloth he uses to produce his armor. Pegasus Airlines (Turkish: Pegasus Hava Taşımacılığı A.Ş.) is a low-cost airline headquartered in the Kurtköy area of Pendik, Istanbul, Turkey.

Lampsacus (Greek: Λάμψακος, Lampsakos, modern:Lapseki) was an ancient Greek city strategically located on the eastern side of the Hellespont in the northern Troad . An inhabitant of Lampsacus was called a Lampsacene. The name has been transmitted in the nearby modern town of Lapseki .

 History

Originally known as Pityusa or Pityussa (Greek: Πιτυουσα, Pituousa, or Πιτυουσσα, Pituoussa), it was colonized from Phocaea and Miletus . During the 6th and 5th century BC , Lampsacus was successively dominated by Lydia , Persia , Athens , and Sparta ; Artaxerxes I assigned it to Themistocles with the expectation that the city supply the Persian king with its famous wine . Lampsacus joined the Delian League after the battle of Mycale , and paid a tribute of twelve talents , a testimony to its wealth, and it had a gold coinage in the 4th century BC , an activity only available to the more prosperous cities.

A revolt against the Athenians in 411 BC was put down by force. In 196 BC , the Romans defended the town against Antiochus the Great , and it became an ally of Rome; Cicero (2 Verr. i. 24. 63) and Strabo (13. 1. 15) attest its continuing prosperity under Roman rule. Lampsacus was also notable for its worship of Priapus , who was said to have been born there.

Lampsacus produced a series of notable philosophers. Metrodorus of Lampsacus (the elder) (5th century BC) was a philosopher from the school of Anaxagoras . Strato of Lampsacus (c. 335-c. 269 BC) was a Peripatetic philosopher and the third director of Aristotle's Lyceum at Athens. Euaeon of Lampsacus was one of Plato 's students. A group of Lampsacenes were in the circle of Epicurus ; they included Polyaenus of Lampsacus (c. 340 – 278 BC) a mathematician, the philosophers Idomeneus of Lampsacus , Colotes the satirist and Leonteus of Lampsacus ; Batis of Lampsacus the wife of Idomeneus, was the sister of Metrodorus of Lampsacus (the younger) , whose elder brother, also a friend of Epicurus, was Timocrates of Lampsacus .

 Christian history

According to legend, St Tryphon was buried at Lampsacus after his martyrdom at Nicaea in 250 AD .

The first known bishop in Lampsacus was Parthenius , under Constantine I . In 364, the see was occupied by Marcian and in the same year a council of bishops was held at Lampsacus. Marcian, was summoned to the First Council of Constantinople of Constantinople in 381, but refused to retract his adherence of the Macedonian Christian sect. Other known Bishops of Lampsacus were Daniel , who assisted at the Council of Chalcedon (451); Harmonius (458); Constantine (680), who attended the Third Council of Constantinople ; John (787), at Nicaea; St. Euschemon , a correspondent of St. Theodore the Studite , and a confessor of the Faith for the veneration of images, under Theophilus . The See of Lampsacus is mentioned in the "Notitiae Episcopatuum" until about the twelfth or thirteenth century.

 Modern settlement

The nearby settlement of Lapseki has inherited the name; its population is now in the region of 11,000.