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"Pegasus" is the name of the winged horse in Greek Mythology, born from the blood that flowed when Perseus slew Medusa ( Poseidon was also god of horses . . .). He was then used by Bellerophon to slay the Chimera.
Since then, the image of a horse with wings has persisted in stories and culture, whether these horses are named Pegasus or another name. (In fact, "pterippi" is a redirect to this page.)
Such stories may turn Pegasus into a whole species (plural is often "pegasi").
A Sub Trope of Cool Horse.
A Super Trope to Winged Unicorn.
Compare Unicorn, Winged Humanoid, Our Angels Are Different.
Examples:
Advertising
- The Tri-Star logo.
- The Mobil logo.
- The logo of the Reader's Digest Association.
Anime and Manga
- In Fate/stay night, Bellerophon, the Noble Phantasm of the Servant Rider (Medusa), can be used to control even the most powerful mythical beasts. Rider due to her part in the creation of Pegasus is able to summon Pegasus and perfectly control it in battle with Bellerophon.
- Metal Fight Beyblade is similar to the above example, but with spinning tops. Again, the protagonist uses Pegasus.
- One Piece has Pierre, a bird who has the ability to transform into a horse after eating the Horse-Horse Devil Fruit. Pierre's in-between form is effectively a pegasus. A rather ugly pegasus.
- Pegasus was a character on Sailor Moon that the villains of the season were seeking, although he could take human form. Or, more accurately, his original form was human.
- Saint Seiya is based around warriors who use constellations as their motif. The protagonist's constellation is Pegasus.
- Teppei from B't X rides a mechanical pegasus. Notably, this manga is from the same artist who made Saint Seiya, Masami Kurumada.
- Not quite. X is meant to represent a Kirin
 .
- In Smile Pretty Cure!, Märchenland has a holiday known as the Pegasus Day, in which the locals use the light of the candles on a starry night to make a wish to a pegasus that flies across the sky. Said pegasus also grants the Cures their second power-up attack, Rainbow Burst.
Comic Books
- DC's Shining Knight (both of them) also have winged horses. Justin's was called Victory, Ystina's was Vanguard. Victory was an actual horse, before Merlin turned him into a pegasus.
- Danielle Moonstar of the New Mutants acquired a winged Valkyrie steed, Brightwind, on a trip to Asgard. In that Brightwind chose her, which was the Word Of God (Horse) technically.
- Dane Whitman, the Black Knight, first had Aragorn, a genetically engineered flying horse, and then eventually upgraded to Strider, a magic horse capable of flying faster than the speed of sound (which would lead to all sorts of other problems, but hey, it's magic, so that clears it all up). The less said about the mechanical "Atomic Steed" he rode for a while, the better.
- The Valkyries from The Mighty Thor ride winged horses, one of which ended up in the possession of Danielle Moonstar of the New Mutants.
- One of Wonder Woman's foes has Pegasus (the original one from Greek myth) as his personal steed.
Fan Works
Film
Literature
- In The Chronicles of Narnia, the horse Strawberry (from our world) was given wings by Aslan and took the name Fledge.
- Fledge deserves special mention since he began his life as a non-speaking cart-horse, one of the first animals given speech by Aslan, then given wings to help Digory on his quest. He is also the only Pegasus to appear in the series.
- The final book implies that as revered and majestic as unicorns are considered, pegasi are even more so.
- Variant: In Xanth, Winged Centaurs eventually became a viable species (a combination of love springs and people getting transformed as such).
- The winged horses from Harry Potter, particularly the Thestrals.
- Mme. Maxine, the half-giantess headmistress of the French magic school (L'Ecole Beubatons) travels in a coach drawn by a team of matched palamino pegasoi that drink single-malt Scotch whiskey. The in-universe name for this breed is Abraxan.
- Percy Jackson, able to speak to horses because he is the son of Poseidon, befriends a winged horse named Blackjack, who is his Cool Horse during the big battles thereafter.
- In Pegasus, by Robin McKinley, there's an entire species of pegasi, who co-exist peacefully, though they can only communicate via specially-trained Speaker magicians. Each member of the human Royal family has a pegasus companion.
- One of these shows up in the first book of the Alex Verus series, as the mount of an older diviner.
- A number of winged horses appear in the later books of the Tortall Universe. They're never referred to as pegasi, and come in a variety of forms, including little insect-sized ones and the carnivorous hurroks.
- Appear in Kate Forsyth's The Witches of Eileanan series, and (especially) in the sequel trilogy Rhiannon's Ride.
- Julia Golding's Companion's Quartet.
Live-Action TV
Religion and Mythology
Tabletop Games
Video Games
Web Comics
Web Original
- Pegasus is featured in Thalia's Musings as a gift from Athena to Thalia and the other Muses.
- "I created him to be used in battle, but I made him such a brilliant tactician that his riders can’t get him to cooperate. He thinks he knows better, and he usually does. But he doesn’t know anything about the arts or sciences. He’ll get along great with you and your sisters." [1]
- Two of the creature families in Uni Creatures are pegasi. There is also a winged zebra.
- SCP-042 is a pegasus that somehow lost his wings, and because of that, he is now suicidally depressed and tries to get Foundation personnel to put him out of his misery.
Western Animation
- The "Pastoral Symphony" segment of Fantasia features a whole Pegasus family: a white mother, black father, and foals that yellow, blue, and a black baby Pegasus who is always last. A few adult pegasi that are blue are seen as well.
- In Disney's Hercules, Pegasus is Herc's mount, a gift from his father Zeus.
- Some of the My Little Ponies are winged horses.
- And the Flutter ponies from The Movie. The Flutter Ponies are an unusual example, as they have iridescent wings like those found on insects and not the feathered, birdlike wings of Pegasi.
- My Little Pony G3 has both the regular Pegasus Ponies and the insectoid Breezies.
- In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, they're one of the main three races of ponies, along with unicorns and good old earth ponies. Aside from flight, pegasi have the racial ability to control the weather, summoning rain, lightning, and winds.
- Two of them, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, are part of the mane cast. Rainbow Dash in particular is an incredibly talented flier, having broken what is depicted as the sound barrier multiple times, to the point of doing it as a Mundane Utility. Fluttershy, on the other hand, is (usually) a fairly poor flyer who happens to be deathly afraid of heights, though this is compensated by her great skill with animals (something more commonly found in earth ponies) and the powerful Stare.
- The Changelings are a rather creepy variation. They are vaguely equine, love-eating, shapeshifting monsters with fangs, bodies full of holes, and torn, insectoid wings. In other words, they are horseflies.
- The Three Caballeros has a segment about a flying donkey.
- Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus
- Barbie: A Fairy Secret has the Pega Ponies, which, like the Flutterponies from the My Little Pony movie, have wings more akin to butterflies.
- The Smurfs character Blue Eyes, who appears in a few episodes as Smurfette's friend.
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