Note 174 — THE THEOGONY.

And Pegasus the steed.] Pegasus received its name from a well-known emblem, the horse of Poseidon: by which we are to understand an ark or ship. “By horses,” says Artemidorus, “the poets mean ships:” and hence it is that Poseidon is called Hippius; for there is a strict analogy between the poetical or winged horse on land, and a real ship in the sea. Hence it came that Pegasus was esteemed the horse of Poseidon (Neptune), and often named scuphius; a name which relates to a ship, and shows the purport of the emblem. The ark, we know, was preserved by divine providence from the sea, which would have overwhelmed it: and as it was often represented under this symbol of a horse, it gave rise to the fable of the two chief deities, Jupiter and Neptune, disputing about horses. Bryant.

To this we may add the still more remarkable fable of the dispute between Neptune and Pallas: when the former produces a horse, and the latter an olive-tree. “These notions,” observes the author of the Analysis, “arose from emblematical descriptions of the deluge, which the Grecians had received by tradition: but what was general they limited, and appropriated to particular places.”