Guest Post - Could Pegasus Really Have Existed? By Vanessa Finaughty - Wizard of Ends Tour
- Tabitha Tomala
- 1 hour ago
- 3 min read
Welcome to Day 18 of the Wizard of Ends virtual book tour!
What is Wizard of Ends you ask? Check out the book trailer!
Now it's time for the guest post by Vanessa Finaughty!
Could Pegasus Really Have Existed?
In Greek mythology, Pegasus is a winged stallion, usually portrayed as white. He’s said to have sprung from Medusa’s blood when Perseus beheaded her. Other cultures also mention a winged horse. In Hindu mythology, there is Uchchaihshravas, a white horse that is sometimes depicted as being winged and/or having seven heads, and is said to be immortal. Chinese mythology speaks of the longma, a winged horse-like creature with a dragon’s head and a horse’s body covered in scales. Also interesting are the ancient cave paintings depicting winged horses, such as in Mogao Cave 249 in China (which also depicts dragons and human-dragon hybrids).
While I do believe that many ancient tales are based on real-life experiences, I also think that some are probably meant to be taken metaphorically. So which is the winged horse?
The obvious first question is: is there any fossil evidence? To the best of my knowledge, the answer is a resounding no. Of course, this alone doesn’t rule out the possibility – very few animals are fossilised, and new discoveries are made often. Furthermore, wings and the propatagium (a membrane that connects the wings and forelimbs of flying animals) do not fossilise well and are, thus, rare finds. So we’d need to look out for flexed forelimbs – a signature posture of dead birds caused by the propatagium keeping them in a flexed position after death. As far as I can tell, no horse has been found fossilised in this position – and it also wouldn’t prove beyond doubt that the horse had wings.
The next question is: would it have even been possible for a horse to fly? The first thing that most people will tell you is that a horse is too big and heavy to fly – its wings would have to be enormous. It’s not really clear to me how huge wings would have been impossible, especially when you consider Quetzalcoatlus northropi (a pterosaur), which was about 5 metres (16 feet) tall, weighed up to 250kg (551 pounds), and had a wingspan that could reach about 11 metres (36 feet).
The average modern horse weighs about 500kg (1,100 pounds). However, the first known member of the horse (Equida) family, the Hyracotherium, was only about the size of a dog – far smaller and lighter than today’s horses, at about 61cm (24 inches) and weighing around about 9kg (20 pounds). The only problem with this is that even ancient horses had four legs – and the propatagium usually connects the shoulders to the forelimbs. From what I understand, this means that flying horses might have had six legs or very weak wing strength.
Sadly, it seems that there’s no real evidence for the existence of flying horses at any point in Earth’s history. I think it’s likely that horses being depicted with wings was merely symbolic of how fast they were.
Wizard of Ends, Book 1 – permafree
Smashwords | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Apple | Everand | Vivlio | Fable | Palace
Wizard of Ends, Book 2: Dark Creature
Smashwords | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Apple | Everand | Vivlio | Fable | Palace
Wizard of Ends, Book 3: United Army
Smashwords | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Everand | Vivlio | Fable | Palace
Wizard of Ends companion: Magic in the Real World
Smashwords | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Everand | Vivlio | Fable | Palace | Books2Read
About the Author
Vanessa Finaughty is a multi-genre author who has published more than 20 books, including school books published by Oxford University Press Southern Africa. Vanessa grew up in Cape Town, South Africa, and still lives there with her husband and their four children (two human and two furry, four-legged).
Vanessa has always been passionate about books, and knew from a young age that she wanted to write them one day. She loves animals, coffee and the smell of wet grass, and hates excessive weather, long queues and liars. Her interests include reading, photography, the supernatural, mythology, aliens and outer space, ancient history, life’s mysteries and martial arts, in which she has five years’ experience in Ki Aikido.
