Can you imagine a horse with wings? Ancient Greek mythology tells stories about a flying horse. His name was Pegasus. He was a white stallion with big white wings.

Pegasus was the child of the sea god Poseidon. His mother was Medusa, a gorgon with snakes for hair. When the hero Perseus cut off Medusa’s head, Pegasus was born.

According to legend, a man named Bellerophon captured Pegasus. Bellerophon loved to ride Pegasus. They had a lot of adventures together. In one adventure, Bellerophon fought the fire-breathing Chimera. He won the battle with help from Pegasus.

One day Bellerophon tried to ride Pegasus to Mount Olympus. Mount Olympus was the home of the gods. Regular people were not allowed to go there. Pegasus knew that Bellerophon shouldn’t go to Mount Olympus. So he threw Bellerophon off his back.

The story says that the gods were happy with Pegasus for keeping Bellerophon away from Mount Olympus. Zeus was the king of the gods. He wanted to reward Pegasus. So he gave him a home on Mount Olympus.

Zeus loved Pegasus. He also loved throwing thunder and lightning at the people below. Pegasus helped Zeus by bringing him thunder and lightning.

Zeus honored Pegasus by turning him into a constellation. A constellation is a group of stars in the sky. If you look up on a dark night, you might see Pegasus standing guard.