In Greek mythology, the winged horse that sprang from the blood of the Gorgon Medusa when she was decapitated by the hero Perseus. He carried Bellerophon in his fight with the chimera, and was later transformed into a constellation.
Pegasus was also regarded as a symbol of poetic genius; Hippocrene, the spring of the Muses on Mount Helicon, was said to have sprung from a blow of his hoof.