PEGASUS

, the Horse, a constellation of the northern hemisphere, figured in the form of a flying horse; being one of the 48 ancient constellations.

It is fabled, by the Greeks, to have been the offspring of an amour between Neptune and the Gorgon Medusa; and to have been that on which Bellerophon rode when he overcame the Chimera; and that flying from mount Helicon to heaven, he there became a constellation; having thrown his rider in the flight; and that the stroke of his hoof on the mount opened the sacred fountain Hippocrene.

The stars in this constellation, in Ptolomy's catalogue, are 20, in Tycho's 19, in Hevelius's 38, and in the Britannic catalogue 89.