Πήγασος

Ancient Greek

Bellerophon rides Pegasus and fights the Chimera. Apulian red-figure oenochoe, by the Baltimore Painter, about 340/10 BCE.

Alternative forms

Πᾱ́γᾰσος (Pā́gasos) — Doric

Etymology

Traditionally associated with πηγή (pēgḗ, “spring, fountain, fountain fed by a spring”), especially used to denote springs of Ocean, where Perseus killed Medusa, from whose blood Pegasus sprang.

One alternative etymology of this name is Luwian [script needed] (pihassas, “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,[1] but Robin Lane Fox (2009) has criticized it as implausible.[2]

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /pɛ̌ː.ɡa.sos/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈpe̝.ɡa.sos/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈpi.ɣa.sos/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈpi.ɣa.sos/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈpi.ɣa.sos/

Proper noun

Πήγᾰσος • (Pḗgasos) m (genitive Πηγᾰ́σου); second declension

Pegasus

Inflection

Second declension of ὁ Πήγᾰσος; τοῦ Πηγᾰ́σου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular
Nominative	ὁ Πήγᾰσος ho Pḗgasos
Genitive	τοῦ Πηγᾰ́σου toû Pēgásou
Dative	τῷ Πηγᾰ́σῳ tôi Pēgásōi
Accusative	τὸν Πήγᾰσον tòn Pḗgason
Vocative	Πήγᾰσε Pḗgase
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

Πηγᾰ́σειος (Pēgáseios)

Descendants

Greek: Πήγασος (Pígasos)
Latin: Pēgasus, Pēgasos

References

“Πήγασος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“Πήγασος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited, page 1,020

The connection of Pegasus with Pihassas was suggested by H.T. Bossert, "Die phönikisch-hethitischen Bilinguen vom Karatepe", Jahrbuch für kleinasiatische Forschung, 2 1952/53:333, P. Frei, "Die Bellerophontessaga und das Alte Testament", in B. Janowski, K. Koch and G. Wilhelm, eds., Religionsgeschichtliche Beziehungen zwischen Kleinasien, Nordsyrien und der Alte Testament, 1993:48f, and Hutter, "Der luwische Wettergott pihašsašsi under der griechischen Pegasos", in Chr. Zinko, ed. Studia Onomastica et Indogermanica... 1995:79–98. Commentary was provided by R. S. P. Beekes in his Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. 1183.
"a storm god is not the origin of a horse. However, he had a like-sounding name, and Greek visitors to Cilicia may have connected their existing Pegasus with Zeus's lightning after hearing about this 'Pihassassi' and his functions and assuming, wrongly, he was their own Pegasus in a foreign land." Robin Lane Fox, Travelling Heroes in the Epic Age of Homer, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2009, →ISBN, pp. 207ff.