Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/535

Rh CHAP, possessed of this steed only by the aid of Athene Chalinitis, who, giving him a bridle, enables him to catch the horse as he drinks from the well Peirene, or, as others said, brings him Pegasos already tamed and bridled. When the Chimaira was slain, Bellerophon, the story ran, sought to rise to heaven on the back of his steed, but was either thrown off or fell off from giddiness, while the horse continued to soar upwards, like the cumuli clouds which far outstrip the sun as they rise with him into the sky.

Pegasos, however, is not only the thundering horse of Zeus ; he is also connected Avith the Muses, who in their swan forms ^ are the Pegasos. beautiful clouds sailing along the sky to the soft music of the morning breezes. The same blending of the myths of vapour and wind is seen in the rivalry between the Pierides and the Helikonian Muses. When the former sang, everything, it is said, became dark and gloomy, as when the wind sighs through the pinewoods at night, while with the song of the Muses the light of gladness returned, and Helikon itself leaped up in its joy and rose heavenwards, until a blow from the hoof of Pegasos smote it down, as a sudden thunderstorm may check the soaring cirri in their heavenward way. But Pegasos is still in this myth the moisture-laden cloud. From the spot dinted by his hoof sprang the fountain Hippokrene, whether in Boiotia or in Argos.*

' Kallim. Hymn to Delos, 255. are given of the supposed footmark on to European mythology. Two accounts
 * These footprints are not peculiar Adam's Peak in Ceylon,