How Pegasus Sprang from Medusa and Soared to Olympus

The immortal, white-winged stallion Pegasus is one of the most iconic creatures in Greek mythology. He was born from the tragic and brutal union of a god, a gorgon, and a hero’s sword. While Pegasus is primarily remembered as the devoted companion of the hero Bellerophon, his story encompasses much more. He was the thunder-bearer of Zeus, tamed by Athena, and created the spring of inspiration for the nine Muses. Dive into the fascinating tale of Pegasus, the legendary flying horse who soared through the skies of Greek mythology.

Pegasus is often depicted as a pure white stallion with magnificent feathered wings. However, there are instances where it is shown as wingless yet capable of flight or with a black coat.

The birth of Pegasus is one of the more unique stories among the many unorthodox birthing tales found in Greek mythology. Pegasus was the offspring of the sea god Poseidon and Medusa, the eldest sister of the three infamous Gorgons—monstrous women with serpents for hair who could turn a person to stone with a single look. This story highlights the harsh treatment of humans by the Olympian gods.

Engaging in sexual intercourse in the temple of the virgin goddess Athena, whether consensual or non-consensual, was an unforgivable act of blasphemy that demanded punishment. As a fellow Olympian, Athena was unable to punish Poseidon for forcing himself on a mortal woman within her temple. Instead of recognizing that Medusa was a victim of assault, Athena chose to direct all her anger toward her. Athena transformed Medusa into the monstrous Gorgon, cursed with a petrifying gaze and serpentine hair, and doomed to be hunted by men.

Some accounts also suggest that Medusa angered Athena by claiming she was more beautiful than the goddess, possibly reflecting the writer’s efforts to justify the severe punishment she faced.

Many years after Medusa began her new life as a monster, the hero Perseus was sent to slay her and return Medusa’s head to the cruel King Polydectes. With the help of several gifts from the Olympians, Perseus quietly approached Medusa while wearing Hades’s helmet of invisibility. He used a mirrored shield given to him by Athena to attack her without making direct eye contact, allowing him to behead her with his adamantine sword. Then, something unexpected happened: fully formed twin brothers, the white-winged horse Pegasus and the giant Chrysaor, erupted from the stump of Medusa’s neck.

It was revealed that Medusa had been pregnant with Poseidon’s twin sons throughout her entire existence as a Gorgon. Upon her death, with the help of Perseus’s sword, she could finally bring her sons into the world. Other accounts tell that they were born in a similar manner to Aphrodite when Medusa’s blood fell onto the earth or the sea. Very little is known about Pegasus’s twin brother Chrysaor, which means “he who has a golden sword,” except that he married the Oceanid Callirrhoe. Together, they had a son, the three-headed giant Geryon, whom Heracles later defeated during his tenth labor.

The story of Perseus and Pegasus traditionally concludes after the hero beheads Medusa, leading to Pegasus’s birth. However, centuries later, as ancient Greek myths gained popularity in Europe, numerous writers and artists began portraying Perseus and Pegasus as companions. In these newer versions of the myth, Pegasus flies Perseus to the island of Seriphos, where he assists the hero in rescuing Andromeda from the sea monster in Aethiopia. In the original versions of this myth, however, Perseus was gifted various magical items from the gods, including Hermes’s winged sandals, which allowed him to fly without ever needing the assistance of Pegasus.

Pegasus and Athena: Taming on Olympus

In the years before meeting his heroic partner Bellerophon, Pegasus flew freely across the skies and eventually made his way to his father Poseidon’s family on Olympus. Although Pegasus lived in the legendary Olympian stables that housed the creatures pulling the many chariots of the gods, he was not tamed. However, the majestic and wild white-winged stallion eventually caught Athena’s attention. She began training Pegasus and succeeded by creating a golden bridle, which allowed her to tame and ride him and teach him how to let mortals ride him.

Pegasus and the Muses: Creating the Font of Inspiration

Pegasus is often linked to the creation of natural springs and the nine Muses, the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. According to the myth, the nine Muses participated in a singing contest against the nine daughters of King Pierus, known as the Pierides. Although the Pierides were talented singers, they could not match the Muses, whose extraordinary performance was so captivating that Mount Helicon, where the contest took place, swelled with water in admiration of their song.

The mountain was on the verge of bursting but could not release the water trapped inside it. To prevent disaster, Poseidon asked his son Pegasus to fly to Mount Helicon and help relieve the mountain’s swelling. When Pegasus landed at the top of Mount Helicon, he stomped his hoof on the ground, striking a rock, which created a spring and released the waters trapped within the mountain. This natural spring on Helicon was named Hippocrene, which translates to “horse fountain” and became sacred to the Muses. The Hippocrene became known as a font of inspiration, and drinking its waters was said to grant inspirational ideas. Pegasus was also believed to have created other springs, including one at Troezen and the spring of Peirene in Corinth, where he was destined to meet the hero Bellerophon.

Pegasus is best known for his adventures alongside Bellerophon. Together, this heroic duo helped each other defeat monsters and entire armies through their unique aerial combat.

Bellerophon was the son of Poseidon and Queen Eurynome, the wife of King Glaucus of Corinth. In earlier versions of the myth, such as in Homer’s Iliad, Glaucus, the son of the infamous King Sisyphus, is depicted as Bellerophon’s father instead of Poseidon. Although Bellerophon exhibited all the traditional traits of a hero, he became well-known for his exceptional skill in riding and handling horses, the sacred animals of Poseidon.

In ancient Greek mythology, heroes often face tragic events that shape their destinies. Bellerophon is one such hero whose journey is marked by a series of unfortunate incidents that lead him to adventure and, ultimately, to his destined companion, Pegasus. Bellerophon faced his first misfortune when he accidentally killed someone, leading to blood guilt and his exile from Corinth. Seeking atonement, he obtained ritual purification from King Proetus of Tiryns. Problems arose when Queen Stheneboea, also called Anteia, the wife of Proetus, fell in love with Bellerophon and attempted to seduce him. However, the noble-hearted Bellerophon rejected her advances.

Feeling heartbroken, angry, or ashamed by the rejection, Stheneboea sought revenge. She approached Proetus and falsely accused Bellerophon of attempting to assault her sexually. Enraged, Proetus wanted to kill Bellerophon. However, fearing the sacred laws of hospitality that protect guests, he instead asked Bellerophon to deliver a letter to Stheneboea’s father, Iobates, the King of Lycia. Bellerophon agreed and set off with a letter demanding that Iobates execute the bearer for allegedly assaulting his daughter.

Iobates chose to host Bellerophon for several days of feasting before reading the message, placing him in a predicament similar to Proetus’s concerning the hospitality laws that protect guests. Instead, Iobates devised a plan to send Bellerophon on a series of dangerous quests to slay monsters and villains, hoping he would perish in the process. The first quest Iobates gave Bellerophon was to find and kill the mythical three-headed fire-breathing beast, the Chimera.

Bellerophon accepted Iobate’s quest, eager to make a name for himself in history and legend. On his journey to find the Chimera, Bellerophon encountered the Corinthian prophet Polyeidos, who warned him that he could not defeat the Chimera alone. Polyeidos instructed Bellerophon to travel back to Corinth and sleep in the temple of Athena to find his destined ally, his half-brother Pegasus.

Following Polyeidus’s instructions, Bellerophon traveled to Corinth and spent the night in Athena’s temple after making the necessary sacrifices. Athena appeared to Bellerophon in a dream during the night and presented him with the golden bridle she had initially crafted for riding Pegasus. She instructed him to sacrifice a white bull to his father, Poseidon, and to seek out Pegasus by the nearby spring of Peirene in Corinth. Athena advised him to use the golden bridle and his natural talent for handling horses to tame the creature.

The next day, Bellerophon awoke to find the golden bridle beside him. After sacrificing the white bull to Poseidon, he set off to the spring of Peirene to tame Pegasus.

With the golden bridle in hand, Bellerophon spent hours trying to approach Pegasus, softly uttering soothing and nonsensical words to calm the winged stallion. Finally, Pegasus allowed him to equip the bridle. However, saying that Bellerophon tamed Pegasus might be an oversimplification. The all-white, winged stallion was not an ordinary steed—he possessed an intellect closer to that of a human than that of a wild horse.

Instead of taming him, it would be more accurate to say that Bellerophon earned Pegasus’s respect through his dedication and gentle persistence. Through his natural talent with horses and the golden bridle—a sign that indicated his first rider, Athena, approved of him—Bellerophon earned Pegasus’s trust, allowing them to form an unbreakable bond.

In some versions of the myth, Athena brings a bridled Pegasus directly to Bellerophon after his night in her temple, or in later versions of the myth, Poseidon gives Pegasus to Bellerophon.

With the help of Pegasus, Bellerophon established himself as a legendary hero. The duo soared through the skies and defeated the fearsome fire-breathing Chimera. This monstrous creature had the head and front legs of a lion, the torso and hind legs of a she-goat, and a snake’s tail. A fire-breathing goat’s head protruded from the torso, and the tail featured a serpent’s head at its end.

After several unsuccessful attempts to pierce the Chimera’s hide with arrows, Bellerophon defeated the beast by throwing a lead-tipped spear into its mouth. Although the spear barely penetrated the monster’s throat, that was not Bellerophon’s true intention. He had timed his attack to coincide with the Chimera’s deadly fire breath, which melted the chunk of lead on his spear and suffocated the creature. Bellerophon’s gamble would have failed if he had not trusted Pegasus to maneuver them into position and evade the beast’s flames at the last moment.

Bellerophon and Pegasus would undertake several more quests for Iobates. In what may be the first aerial assault in history, Bellerophon defeated an army of Amazon warriors by attacking from above, dropping boulders on them, and crushing the legendary fighters from the sky. The duo overcame pirates and various enemies until Bellerophon proved his innocence and exposed Stheneboea’s deception to her husband, Proetus, and her father, Iobates. As an apology and a reward for completing numerous impossible quests, Iobates offered Bellerophon the hand of his remaining daughter Philonoes in marriage and half of his kingdom.

In some versions of the story, Bellerophon could not forgive Stheneboea for her actions and decided to seek revenge. He invited her to join him for a flight over the seas aboard Pegasus. During the flight, Bellerophon threw Stheneboea off the back of Pegasus into the sea, resulting in her death.

Over the years that followed, Bellerophon ruled as the King of Lycia and gradually grew arrogant. With the aid of Pegasus, he defied expectations and achieved the impossible by slaying monsters and single-handedly defeating entire armies. In his arrogance, Bellerophon convinced himself that someone of his esteem and success deserved to live on Olympus with the gods.

Bidding farewell to his family and kingdom, Bellerophon mounted Pegasus, his best friend and loyal companion, and began flying to Olympus. However, Zeus could not tolerate Bellerophon’s hubris; no mortal could presume to join the gods on Olympus, regardless of their accomplishments. As Pegasus ascended to the heavens, Zeus sent a gadfly to sting Pegasus, causing him to buck and throw Bellerophon off his back.

In some versions of the story, Bellerophon dies from the fall, while in others, he survives but becomes severely disabled. Due to his egotistical attempt to reach Olympus, humanity shuns him for the rest of his life. Bellerophon and Pegasus would never meet again. While Bellerophon was denied entry to join the gods, Pegasus was welcomed among them. Pegasus had lived on Olympus long before meeting Bellerophon and continued his ascent there, where he would remain.

Upon returning to Olympus, Pegasus took on his new role as Zeus’s thunder-bearer. In this position, Pegasus accompanied the King of the Gods into battle, carrying Zeus’s weapons, particularly his famous thunderbolts. After years of devoted service, when it was time for Pegasus to retire, Zeus honored his weapon bearer by immortalizing him in the stars as the Pegasus constellation.