Pegasus was the winged horse.

Pegasus: the winged horse

Pegasus

A winged horse, son of Poseidon, god of the sea, and the Gorgon Medusa. Pegasus sprang from Medusa's neck when she was killed by the hero Perseus.

Andromeda is being rescued by Perseus going into battle, riding Pegesus , the hero of Greek mythology, from a horrible death in the fangs of a dragon
Perseus and Andromeda, 1819; Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.

The magical steed struck the ground on Mount Helicon, on the spot a sacred spring to the Muses as the source for poetic inspiration, began to flow.

1855    BULFINCH'S MYTHOLOGY:
THE AGE OF FABLE OR STORIES OF GODS AND HEROES
    by Thomas Bulfinch
16   Chapter XVI.   MONSTERS.

PEGASUS AND THE CHIMAERA.

When Perseus cut off Medusa's head, the blood sinking into the 
earth produced the winged horse Pegasus. Minerva caught and tamed 
him and presented him to the Muses. The fountain Hippocrene, on 
the Muse's mountain Helicon, was opened by a kick from his hoof.

The Chimaera was a fearful monster, breathing fire. The fore 
part of its body was a compound of the lion and the goat, and the 
hind part a dragon's. It made great havoc in Lycia, so that the 
king, Iobates, sought for some hero to destroy it. At that time 
there arrived at his court a gallant young warrior, whose name 
was Bellerophon.

He brought letters from Proetus, the son-in-law of Iobates, 
recommending Bellerophon in the warmest terms as an unconquerable
hero, but added at the close a request to his father-in-law to 
put him to death.

The reason was that Proetus was jealous of him, suspecting that 
his wife Antea looked with too much admiration on the young 
warrior. From this instance of Bellerophon being unconsciously 
the bearer of his own death warrant, the expression 
"Bellerophontic letters" arose, to describe any species of 
communication which a person is made the bearer of, containing 
matter prejudicial to himself.

Iobates, on perusing the letters, was puzzled what to do, not 
willing to violate the claims of hospitality, yet wishing to 
oblige his son-in-law.

A lucky thought occurred to him, to send Bellerophon to combat 
with the Chimaera. Bellerophon accepted the proposal, but before 
proceeding to the combat consulted the soothsayer Polyidus, who 
advised him to procure if possible the horse Pegasus for the 
conflict. For this purpose he directed him to pass the night in 
the temple of Minerva.

He did so, and as he slept Minerva came to him and gave him a 
golden bridle. When he awoke the bridle remained in his hand. 
Minerva also showed him Pegasus drinking at the well of Pirene, 
and at sight of the bridle the winged steed came willingly and 
suffered himself to be taken.

Bellerophon mounted him, rose with him into the air, soon found 
the Chimaera, and gained an easy victory over the monster.

After the conquest of the Chimaera Bellerophon was exposed to 
further trials and labours by his unfriendly host, but by the aid 
of Pegasus he triumphed in them all, till at length Iobates, 
seeing that the hero was a special favourite of the gods, gave 
him his daughter in marriage and made him his successor on the 
throne.

At last Bellerophon by his pride and presumption drew upon 
himself the anger of the gods; it is said he even attempted to 
fly up into heaven on his winged steed, but Jupiter sent a gadfly 
which stung Pegasus and made him throw his rider, who became lame 
and blind in consequence.

After this Bellerophon wandered lonely through the Aleian 
field, avoiding the paths of men, and died miserably.

Milton alludes to Bellerophon in the beginning of the seventh 
book of "Paradise Lost":

"Descend from Heaven, Urania, by that name
    If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine
    Following, above the Olympian hill I soar,
    Above the flight of Pegasean wing.
    Upled by thee,
    Into the Heaven of Heavens I have presumed,
    An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air
    (Thy tempering); with like safety guided down
    Return me to my native element;
    Lest, from this flying steed unreined (as once
    Bellerophon, though from a lower clime),
    Dismounted, on the Aleian field I fall,
    Erroneous there to wander and forlorn."

Young, in his "Night Thoughts," speaking of the sceptic, says:

"He whose blind thought futurity denies,
    Unconscious bears, Bellerophon, like thee
    His own indictment; he condemns himself.
    Who reads his bosom reads immortal life,
    Or nature there, imposing on her sons,
    Has written fables; man was made a lie."
     Vol. II., p. 12.

Pegasus, being the horse of the Muses, has always been at the 
service of the poets. Schiller tells a pretty story of his having 
been sold by a needy poet and put to the cart and the plough.

He was not fit for such service, and his clownish master could 
make nothing of him. But a youth stepped forth and asked leave to 
try him. As soon as he was seated on his back the horse, which 
had appeared at first vicious, and afterwards spirit-broken, rose 
kingly, a spirit, a god, unfolded the splendour of his wings, and 
soared towards heaven. Our own poet Longfellow also records 
adventure of this famous steed in his "Pegasus in Pound."

Shakespeare alludes to Pegasus in "Henry IV.," where Vernon 
describes Prince Henry:

"I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,
    His cuishes on 
this thighs, gallantly armed,
    Rise from the ground like 
feathered Mercury,
    And vaulted with such ease into his seat, 
    As if an angel dropped down from the clouds,
    To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,
    And witch the world with noble horsemanship."

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