Pegasus has one of the strangest birth stories in Greek mythology. When the hero Perseus struck the head from the gorgon Medusa, two creatures sprang from her severed neck: the giant Chrysaor, and a snow-white winged horse with the speed of the wind. That was Pegasus.
He was the offspring of Medusa and the sea god Poseidon (god of horses as well as oceans), and from the moment he was born he belonged to the sky. He flew straight to Mount Olympus and entered the service of Zeus himself, carrying the king of the gods' thunderbolts whenever they were needed.
His most famous earthly partnership was with Bellerophon, the young Corinthian hero. With the help of the goddess Athena and a golden bridle, Bellerophon tamed Pegasus at the spring of Pirene, and together the two of them slew the Chimera — the fire-breathing hybrid monster terrorising Lycia. For a while, they were unstoppable.
Then Bellerophon got too proud. He decided that, having ridden a flying horse to glory, he was now fit company for the gods themselves, and tried to fly Pegasus all the way to Olympus. Zeus did not appreciate the visit. He sent a gadfly that stung Pegasus under the tail, the horse threw his rider, and Bellerophon fell back to earth — broken, blinded, and forgotten.
Pegasus, however, kept flying. He completed his journey to Olympus alone, and Zeus rewarded him with a permanent home in the stars: the constellation Pegasus, still visible in the autumn sky, four bright stars marking the great square of his body.
He has become a universal symbol — of poetry (the Muses claimed him as their horse), of inspiration striking from nowhere, of the unbreakable spirit that flies even when its rider falls. Wear Pegasus and you wear that idea: the part of you that belongs to the sky, no matter what tries to pull you back down.