Pegasus

Origin and myth

Pegasus is a single named individual, not a species, and his story is told by Hesiod in the Theogony in the 8th century BC. When Perseus beheaded the Gorgon Medusa, Pegasus and his brother, the warrior Chrysaor, sprang from her neck; their father was Poseidon, god of the sea and of horses.

The best-known Pegasus story belongs to Bellerophon and is told by Pindar in the 5th century BC and by Apollodorus. The hero of Corinth needed to kill the Chimera, and the goddess Athena gave him a golden bridle with which he tamed Pegasus as the horse drank at the spring of Peirene. Mounted and airborne, Bellerophon shot the Chimera from above. Success made him proud: he tried to ride Pegasus to Olympus itself, and Zeus sent a gadfly to sting the horse, throwing Bellerophon to earth, where he lived out his life lame and alone. Pegasus continued to Olympus and was placed among the stars.

Pegasus was also linked to poetry. The spring of Hippocrene on Mount Helicon, sacred to the Muses, was said to have burst from the rock where his hoof struck, and from the Renaissance onward he became the emblem of poetic inspiration.

Appearance

Pegasus is a horse with wings, and the sculptor's task is to make the wings look like they belong. The horse should be an idealised stallion: deep chest, arched neck, fine head with small ears, slender but strong legs and a full flowing mane and tail. Greek vase painting of the 6th and 5th centuries BC shows him in profile, usually with the wings rising from just behind the shoulders and sweeping back, feathered like an eagle's and roughly as long as the body.

The wing root should sit at the withers, blending into the shoulder muscle, with a strong bony leading edge and long primary feathers. The eye accepts a wingspan of two to two and a half body lengths.

Colour by tradition is white, with a white or silver mane and tail and white wings shading to grey or gold at the tips. Eyes dark, hooves pale grey.

In modern fantasy

Pegasus and pegasi in general are staples of Dungeons & Dragons, Heroes of Might and Magic, Fire Emblem, the Percy Jackson books and countless fantasy settings, usually as mounts for paladins, elves or sky-knights and nearly always as creatures of good.

3D printing notes

Pegasus combines the two most fragile things in miniature printing: slender horse legs and thin feathered wings. At 28-32 mm, resin is required; print the horse at a 30 degree tilt with supports at the hooves, belly and muzzle, and print the wings as separate flat parts with shoulder pegs. If the wings must be printed attached, angle them at least 25 degrees from the plate and support the leading edges and every feather tip.

At 75 mm, resin still gives the best mane, feather and muscle detail, but a well-tuned FDM printer can produce a good horse body if the mane and tail are modelled thickly. Print the horse standing on a base with all four hooves planted, or with the tail connecting to a rock for a rearing pose. Wings separate, flat, feathered side up.

For a 150 mm or larger centrepiece, split into body, head and neck, two wings, tail and base, and reinforce the wing pegs with metal pins. A flying pose on a clear acrylic rod from a cloud base is the classic display.

Painting and display

White is difficult to paint well, so build it up: a light grey base, a blue-grey wash in the recesses of muscles and feathers, then successive dry-brushes of off-white and pure white on the highest points. Warm the mane and tail slightly with a touch of ivory. Wing feathers can shift to a pale gold or grey-blue at the tips to give the eye something to follow. Hooves and eyes in dark grey.

A cloud base in white with soft grey shading suits the Olympus story; a rocky spring with water-effect resin suits Hippocrene. If you want light, a cool-white LED under a translucent cloud base gives a gentle glow without turning Pegasus into a lamp.

Related creatures

The Hippogriff is the other winged mount of European legend, half horse and half griffin, and the Kazakh Tulpar is the winged horse of the Turkic epics. The Unicorn is Pegasus' companion in the world of noble white horses, and the Griffin is the eagle-winged beast from which the hippogriff was bred.

If you would like a Pegasus printed as a flying display piece or a tabletop mount, ask Fantasy Lab 3D through the contact form.