Pegasus

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.

Pegasus

A constellation of the northern hemisphere, near Cygnus, represented as the winged horse of Greek mythology.

It is the seventh-largest constellation in the sky, and its main feature is a square outlined by four stars, one of which (Alpherat) is actually part of the adjoining constellation Andromeda. Diagonally across is Markab (or Alpha Pegasi), about 100 light years distant.