page_title: Pegasus
section_title: Etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Pegasus / Etymology
caption_attribution_description: English: Pegasus on roof of Poznań Opera House
context_page_description: Pegasus is a mythical winged divine horse, and one of the most recognized creatures in Greek mythology. Usually depicted as pure white, Pegasus is the offspring of the Olympian god Poseidon. He was foaled by the Gorgon Medusa upon her death, when the hero Perseus decapitated her. Pegasus is the brother of Chrysaor and the uncle of Geryon.
  Pegasus was caught by the Greek hero Bellerophon, near the fountain Peirene, with the help of Athena and Poseidon. Pegasus allowed Bellerophon to ride him in order to defeat the monstrous Chimera, which led to many other exploits. Bellerophon later fell from the winged horse's back while trying to reach Mount Olympus. Afterwards, Zeus transformed Pegasus into the eponymous constellation.
context_section_description: The poet Hesiod presents a folk etymology of the name Pegasus as derived from πηγή 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 the 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.
  Dr. Michael Brown, who has been studying ancient and medieval Greek poetry in the context of the Greek-North European dialogue, and has concluded from it that the word "Pegasus" is a pre-Celtic-PIE word, one which did not evolve into one of the numerous common names listed in both Greek and Western languages. This is discussed further in "Linguistics and Classical Theology," by William S. R. Miller, which is based on his work with Charles F. G. Osterhaus's analysis of the word and its relationships to Greek and Italian. The relationship of "Pegasus" to "Cyrillic" is discussed further in his Phrygian Monikers and the Naming of Greek Pronunciation "Cyrillic or Pene-Orthogyrin" and "Pegasus" as an Early Semitic construct.
caption: Pegasus, as the horse of Muses, on the roof of Poznań Opera House (Max Littmann, 1910)
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