There is the putative Hittite etymology that connects the name of the winged horse with lightning.
Everywhere the winged horse struck his hoof to the earth, an inspiring spring burst forth. Thus Mount Helicon, with the blushful Hippocrene. Keats appears to have thought the spring flowed with claret.
O for a beaker full of the warm south, Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene, With beaded bubbles winking at the brim, And purple-stainèd mouth; That I might drink, and leave the world unseen, And with thee fade away into the forest dim—
Byron claimed not to understand the metaphor, but Leigh Hunt pointed out that Byron had known a bumper or two, in his days at college, and suggested that what Byron failed to understand was not claret but poetry.
Keats thought the horse had "viewless wings".
Is that why Pegasus didn't notice Bellerophon creeping up, to capture him?
Karl Kerenyi: "In the name Pegasos itself the connection with a spring, pege, is expressed."
I must say your comments are delightfully thirst-quenching and it’s good to see you also pointed out the etymological connection of Pegasus with “pige”=spring—something that might have gone unnoticed to those readers unfamiliar with Greek or with Kerenyi. (And of course "Hippocrene"= horse fountain--where Keats pined for his fill of poetic inspiration and Byron for clarity to understand Keats' metaphor!)
Too erudite for me by far, but what a joy to listen in while you two explore the classical links. I think of Pegasus and I think of candle wax. The connecting stuff that melts with too much heat.
So ... the wingèd horse must return to Earth? Doh! Of course....
ReplyDeleteAnd with clipped wings, of course. (But things could be worse--just think what happened to Icarus!)
ReplyDeleteThis is a pleasure, Vassilis.
ReplyDeleteThere is the putative Hittite etymology that connects the name of the winged horse with lightning.
Everywhere the winged horse struck his hoof to the earth, an inspiring spring burst forth. Thus Mount Helicon, with the blushful Hippocrene. Keats appears to have thought the spring flowed with claret.
O for a beaker full of the warm south,
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stainèd mouth;
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim—
Byron claimed not to understand the metaphor, but Leigh Hunt pointed out that Byron had known a bumper or two, in his days at college, and suggested that what Byron failed to understand was not claret but poetry.
Keats thought the horse had "viewless wings".
Is that why Pegasus didn't notice Bellerophon creeping up, to capture him?
Karl Kerenyi: "In the name Pegasos itself the connection with a spring, pege, is expressed."
Tom,
ReplyDeleteI must say your comments are delightfully thirst-quenching and it’s good to see you also pointed out the etymological connection of Pegasus with “pige”=spring—something that might have gone unnoticed to those readers unfamiliar with Greek or with Kerenyi. (And of course "Hippocrene"= horse fountain--where Keats pined for his fill of poetic inspiration and Byron for clarity to understand Keats' metaphor!)
Too erudite for me by far, but what a joy to listen in while you two explore the classical links. I think of Pegasus and I think of candle wax. The connecting stuff that melts with too much heat.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Elisabeth but I got it straight from the horse's mouth--the erudition is all Tom's!
ReplyDelete