Pegasus
(ˈpɛgəsəs)
[L., a. Gr. Πήγασος, f. πηγή spring, fount, named from the πηγαί or springs of Ocean, near which Medusa was said to have been killed. Formerly also, as in Fr., ˈPegase, in ME. Pegasee.]
1. Gr. and Lat. Mythol. The winged horse fabled to have sprung from the blood of Medusa when slain by Perseus, and with a stroke of his hoof to have caused the fountain Hippocrene to well forth on Mount Helicon. Hence, by modern writers (first in Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato c 1490), represented as the favourite steed of the Muses, and said allusively to bear poets in the ‘flights’ of poetic genius.
| α 1515 Barclay Egloges iv. (1570) C vj b/2 Against the Chimer here stoutly must he fight, Here must he vanquish the fearefull Pegasus. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VIII 66 Then entred a person called Reaport,..sitting on a flyeng horse w{supt} wynges & fete of gold called Pegasus. 1592 Davies Immort. Soul i. vii. (1714) 21 When she, without a Pegasus, doth fly. 1602 Marston Ant. & Mel. iii. Wks. 1856 I. 35 The soules swift Pegasus, the fantasie. a 1657 Lovelace Falcon 44 The heron mounted doth appear On his own Peg'sus a lanceer. 1711 Shaftesbury Charact. v. iii. i. (1737) II. 382 For this purpose I will allow you the pegasus of the poets. 1809 Byron Bards & Rev. ix, Each spurs his jaded Pegasus apace. 1846 Longfellow (title) Pegasus in Pound. |
| β c 1386 Chaucer Sqr.'s T. 199 Lyk the Pegasee The hors þat hadde wynges for to flee. c 1439 Lydg. Lyfe St. Albon (1534) A ij, With full swyfte wynges of the pegasee. c 1470 Henryson Mor. Fab. v. (Parl. Beasts) xiv, The war⁓wolf and the pegase perillous. |
| attrib. and Comb. 1596 C. Fitzgeffrey Sir F. Drake (1881) 8 Th' amber-weeping Pegase-hoofe-made fount. 1599 Marston Sco. Villanie viii, The spirits Pegase Fantasie Should hoyse the soule from such base slauery. 1600 Tourneur Transf. Metam. i, Awake sad Mercurie And Pegase-winged pace the milkie way. 1639 Sir W. Alexander Comm. Verses in Drumm. of Hawth.'s Wks. (1711) p. iv, Ne're did Apollo raise on pegase wings A muse more near himself. |
b. Her. A winged horse as a bearing, etc.
| 1562 Leigh Armorie 202 b, He beareth Azure, A Pegasus Argent, called the horse of honour. 1678 Lond. Gaz. No. 1332/4 For his crest an helmet mantled, a Pegassus holding in his mouth an oaken branch. 1761 Brit. Mag. II. 251 Supporters. Two Pegasusses argent, wings, crests, tails, and hoofs, or. 1864 Boutell Her. Hist. & Pop. xx. §2. 334. |
c. Astron. One of the northern constellations, figured as a winged horse, containing three stars of the 2nd magnitude forming with one star of Andromeda a large square (the
square of Pegasus).
| 1696 Phillips (ed. 5), Pegasus, Perseus's winged Horse, a Celestial Constellation. 1868 Lockyer Elem. Astron. §355. 165 The square of Pegasus is a very marked object. |
2. Zool. A genus of fishes, typical of the family Pegasidæ, of peculiar form, with body somewhat like a horse's head, and one dorsal and one anal fin, suggesting wings; also called
flying sea-horses.
| 1835 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7) XII. 227/2. 1847 Carpenter Zool. §518 The Pegasus..the pectoral fins are large, and are spread out in a wing-like manner; whence these curious Fishes have derived their name, which signifies Flying Horses. |
Hence
† Pegaˈsarian,
Pegaˈsean (
-ˈsæan,
-ˈseian),
Peˈgasean (
-ˈgasian)
adjs. [L.
Pēgasēi-us,
Pēgase-us], pertaining to, connected with, or resembling Pegasus; swift; poetic;
† ˈPegase v. trans. (
nonce-wd.), to serve as a Pegasus to;
ˈPegasid Zool., a fish of the family Pegasidæ (see 2);
ˈPegasoid a., resembling Pegasus; belonging to the Pegasidæ.
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 253 The *Pegasarian coursers of France, by the like change of Horses, run from Lyons to Rome in five or six days. |
| 1614 C. Brooke Ghost Rich. III, Poems (1872) 140 My wingèd horse did *pegase my desire. |
| 1590 T. Watson On Death Sir F. Walsingham Poems (Arb.) 153 Weepe yee sisters of the learned hill: That your *Pægasean springs may leap their bound. 1626 Waller Navy 16 We..who can fear no Force But winged Troops, or Pegasean Horse. 1628 Feltham Resolves ii. xxxii. 101 Death..with a Pegasean speede, flyes vpon vnwarie Man. 1647 H. More Cupid's Conflict iii, An unexpected Pegaseian song. 1667 Milton P.L. vii. 4 Above th' Olympian Hill.., Above the flight of Pegaséan wing. 1717 Belgrade 6 Pardon,..that thus my Pen Should strive to raise its Pegaseian Flight. 1762–9 Falconer Shipwr. iii. 26 From earth upborne on Pegasean wings. 1923 ‘R. Crompton’ William Again iv. 59 ‘I feel’—his Pegasean imagination soared aloft on daring wings—‘I feel 's if I might die if I went to church this mornin' feelin' 's ill as I do now.’ |
| 1599 Marston Sco. Villanie v, How now? What droupes the newe *Pegasian Inne? 1613–16 W. Browne Brit. Past. ii. ii, Ye Sisters of the Mountaine, Who waile his loss from the Pegasian Fountaine. |