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The great winged horse, Pegasus, is one of the most ancient of astronomical symbols, with coins depicting a winged horse dating back to 430 BC. In Greek myth, the Pegasus story begins with Poseidon (Neptune), god of the sea, seducing a beautiful princess by the name of Medusa, in the temple of Athena. Outraged by this desacration of her temple, the goddess Athena turned Medusa into a monster, changing her beautiful head of golden hair into a mass of snakes. When Medusa was slain by the hero Perseus, Pegasus, the result of her union with Poseidon, sprang from her body.
After helping Perseus rescue Andromeda, a tale told in the Andromeda story, Pegasus flew to Mount Helicon to live with the Muses. When his hoof struck the ground at Helicon, a spring gushed forth, which was named Hippocrene, the horse's fountain. It is said that it was from this spring the Muses received their inspiration, and the name of Pegasus comes from the Greek pegai, for spring.
He was next tamed by the Greek hero Bellerophon, with the help of a golden bridle given to him by Athena. Together they slew the monster Chimera, and then Bellerophon tried to fly the horse to Mount Olympus, to be with the gods. Angered by his arrogance, Zeus (Jupiter) sent a gadfly to bite Pegasus, who bucked, causing Bellerophon to fall back to Earth, which crippled him for the rest of his life. Pegasus, however, continued on to the home of the gods, where he became the carrier of thunderbolts for Zeus. In honour of his faithful service, his image was placed in the stars.
The image of Pegasus in the sky depicts the horse on its back, and like Taurus, shows only the animal's upper body, as illustrated in Bayer's 1603 star map, reproduced below.
The constellation can be easily identified by that huge celestial landmark of the autumn sky that denotes the upside down upper body of the horse, known as the great square of Pegasus. The brightest star in the square is Markab, from the Arab word for saddle. Markab is 110 light years away, with a magnitude of 2.5.
Also with a magnitude of 2.5 is the star Scheat, Arabic for foreleg. It is a red giant, with a diameter 160 times greater than our Sun, 210 Light years away. At the opposite corner of the great square we find another giant, the star Algenib, Arabic for wing. Although it has a luminosity 1,900 times greater than our Sun, we see it as only magnitude 2.8, because it is 570 light years away.
Moving away from the great square, we have Enif, Arabic for nose, as it indeed depicts the horse's nose. This is a very bright star, 5,800 times brighter than our Sun. But way out a distance of 780 light years, we see it as magnitude 2.31. Then we have the two good luck stars. Homan, located on the neck of Pegasus, is taken from the Arabic phrase Sa'd al Humam, "Lucky Star of the Hero. It is 210 light years away, with a magnitude of 3.5. Matar, located on the front leg of Pegasus, is part of the Arabic phrase Al Sa'd al Matar, "The Fortunate Rain".
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