Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Pegasus.
The gallery
Bellerophon, Pegasus and the Chimera
Peter Paul Rubens, 1635
In this dynamic Baroque oil sketch, Rubens captures the climactic moment of the Chimera's defeat: the hero Bellerophon, mounted on the winged horse Pegasus, drives his spear down into the fire-breathing monster. Pegasus is the muscular pivot of the composition, wings outspread and forelegs lashing as he rears above the writhing beast, the immortal steed sprung from Medusa whose flight makes the aerial assault possible. The swirling diagonals, taut musculature, and turbulent energy are hallmarks of Rubens, who treats the ancient myth as a study in heroic motion. The work is held in the Musée Bonnat-Helleu in Bayonne.
Bellerophon on Pegasus
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1746–1747
Painted for the ceiling of the Palazzo Labia in Venice, Tiepolo's luminous Rococo fresco sends Pegasus soaring through an airy, light-filled sky. The winged horse, bearing the youthful Bellerophon aloft, embodies the Venetian master's love of upward-spiralling, di sotto in sù compositions in which figures seem to float free of gravity. Here Pegasus serves as an allegory of glory and fame ascending toward immortality, his beating wings and pale coat set against luminous clouds. Tiepolo transforms the mythic steed into a vision of weightless triumph characteristic of eighteenth-century ceiling decoration.
Bellerophon Riding Pegasus and Killing the Chimera (Roman mosaic)
Unknown, 2nd–3rd century AD
This Roman floor mosaic, now in the Musée Rolin in Autun, France, depicts the favourite Greco-Roman pairing of Pegasus and his rider in the act of slaying the Chimera. The winged horse strides forward in profile, his single great wing rising behind the spear-wielding Bellerophon, while the composite lion-goat-serpent monster recoils beneath. Worked in coloured tesserae, the panel shows how the myth of Pegasus, born from Medusa and tamed with Athena's bridle, remained a popular decorative subject across the Roman world, prized as an emblem of victory over chaos and monstrous evil.
Bellerophon, Pegasus and the Chimera (Lakonian black-figure kylix)
Unknown (Boreads Painter, attributed), c. 575–550 BC
On the fragmentary interior of this archaic Spartan drinking cup, Pegasus rears with hooves striking down at the Chimera while the hero Bellerophon attacks below — one of the earliest Greek images of the winged horse in combat. Rendered in the silhouette technique of Lakonian black-figure vase painting, with incised detail and added colour, the scene shows Pegasus as a sturdy winged steed mid-leap. Such cups carried the deeds of heroes into the world of the symposium, and the recurrence of Pegasus and the Chimera on sixth-century pottery attests to how early the myth of Medusa's immortal offspring entered Greek visual tradition.
On screen
In play
Pegasus (constellation)
The Great Square of Pegasus keeps the winged horse in the autumn sky — Bellerophon's mount as a northern landmark.
Pegasus
Pegasus remains the everyday emblem of inspired flight — logos, poetry and school emblems still borrow the horse who sprang from Medusa's blood.