Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/409

Rh Dr. Seiss regards Pegasus as representing the Messenger of Glad Tidings. Jewish legends made it the horse of the mighty Nimrod, and it is also said to represent the ass on which Christ rode in triumph into Jerusalem. Schiller thought this figure represented St. Gabriel.

Bochart claimed that the word Pegasus is a compound of the Phœnician "pag" or "pega," and "sus," meaning the Bridled Horse, used for the figurehead on a ship. It has also been said that Pegasus was of Egyptian origin, from "pag," to cease, and "sus," a vessel, thus symbolising the cessation of navigation at the change of the Nile flow. Here we find Pegasus regarded as the sky emblem of a ship in the very place in the heavens where we should expect to find a craft of some sort, in the part of the sky anciently called "the Sea."

α Pegasi is known as "Markab," an Arab word for a saddle or a ship. It might possibly be that Pegasus, a ship, is the reduplication of Argo, the constellation Ship. In the case of Argo, we find it stranded on a rock. Pegasus is close to the stream pouring from the water-jar of Aquarius, which may represent, as has been supposed, the Flood. It certainly seems more logical to regard Pegasus as a ship rather than half a horse, inasmuch as we have two equine figures in Centaur and Sagittarius, and only one ship, Argo. Reduplication plays such an important part in the constellation designs that we might well expect to find it applicable in the case of the Ship.

An imaginary line connecting α, β, and γ Pegasi and α Andromedæ, a star common to the constellations Andromeda and Pegasus, forms a quadrilateral known as "the Great Square of Pegasus," one of the stellar landmarks.

α Pegasi, or Markab, is one of the so-called lunar stars much observed in navigation. In astrology it portended danger to life from cuts, stabs, and fire. It is on the meridian at 9 Nov. 3d.

γ Pegasi, called "Algenib," meaning the "wing" or "side," is one of "the Three Guides," the stars that are