By Guillermo Tovar y de Teresa The fountain in the National Palace of Mexico is crowned by the sculpture of Pegasus, the winged horse. According to Hyginus, Appolodorus, Strabo, Antonio Liberal and Ovid, among others, the myth of Pegasus - in summary - is associated with three stories: the battle between Perseus and Medusa, between Bellerophon and the Chimaera and a fountain - the root of Pegasus means fountain - which sprang from Mount Parnassus where the Muses lived, and the waters of which had the virtue of making the men that drank of them wise. The battle between Perseus and Medusa symbolizes the liberation of creative imagination. Medusa is a monster whose gaze petrifies; it is unbearable because it represents the inner enemy, the essential lie. Vanity serves to reject guilt, and that produces an impasse: guilt is vainly repressed, which leads to an inner petrification. Perseus calls on the gods to avoid this danger: Athena, goddess of spiritual combat, provides him with a crude shield - sign of reason - which will allow him to see the monster indirectly; Vulcan gives him a scythe to decapitate her, and Mercury, of the winged feet, the spirit and lightness to undertake battle. Armed with these divine elements, and guided by the mirror, Perseus carries out the lucid task and achieves his end: decapitating Medusa, whose head bleeds impregnating the earth from which springs the winged horse. For many Neo-Platonic scholars of the XVI and XVII Centuries, interpreters of signs, Pegasus is the emblem of imagination. In the case of Bellerophon, he, having been slandered, fights the Chimaera. This monster spews fire from its mouth, which prevents approach. It is defeated by Bellerophon thanks to the wise advice of Polyidus, who tells him that it is possible, mounted on the magic steed, to introduce into the monster's mouth a piece of lead which, melted by his fiery breath, will burn his entrails. Bellerophon, aided by imagination, defeats the lie. We know, thanks to the chronicles of Sariñana, that in 1666, the fountain of the winged horse already existed. However, it was necessary to specify the date of its placement; 1625, a date related to the years of the first century of the conquest (1621) and the famous uprising of 1624, brought on by a dispute between Archbishop Pérez de la Serna and Viceroy Marqués de Gelves. The latter arrived in Mexico in 1621, sent by Philip IV and the Count Duke de Olivares to apply a series of reforms at a very delicate time; the New Spaniards were supporters of the Archbishop, the promoter of the cult to the Virgin of Guadalupe, and proclaimed to the four winds their feelings of Mexican Grandeur. They could not stand the Viceroy, nor the Spanish party, and an uprising occurred in the main square, with an attempt to burn and destroy the palace. Humbled, the Viceroy had to return to the city. The Audience began the reconstruction of the building and it was during those years that the fountain with the winged horse was built. What is the meaning of a Pegasus in front of the National Palace? Let us remember that the XVII Century was a time of veiled symbolism and allusions, frequently associated with Neo-Platonism which, as Octavio Paz points out, contains three elements: for example, in those years, it was associated with the stars, which had to do with the various temperaments. Thanks to the German scientist, Enrico Martínez, designer of the drainage system of the Valley of Mexico, it was discovered that the constellation ruling the torrid zone, New Spain and Mexico City is the constellation of Pegasus, according to treatise II, chapter III of his Repertorio de los Tiempos (1606). This is the reference of the symbol in terms of the stars. In temporal terms, the myth of Pegasus, according to Perea y Quintanilla y Diego de Ribera, is related to an allegory of the conquest of Mexico; in 1673, Perseus was believed to represent the universal Catholic monarchy, Hernán Cortés and the conquistadors, who fought idolatry - Medusa would be a sort of Coatlicue - which is decapitated. Its blood impregnates the earth and Pegasus is born, symbol of New Spain. Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora uses Pegasus as a symbol in almost all of his books, accompanied by a Latin motto: sic itur ad astra, "Thus one goes to the stars", a text which comes from Virgil's Aeneid, the great epic linked to things Latin. Sigüenza explains the reason for using this symbol at the end of the XVII century: "The Country is, then, something healthy, its name is soft and no one is concerned with it because it is great and illustrious, but because it is the Country. And I who have reason to do so, more than some other, have undertaken the task of choosing the device or hieroglyph (the symbol, the emblem), which in order to publish my humble works I set my mind on Pegasus whose disposition and epigraph are well-known to represent man, who declares his soul is turned toward the sublime to benefit the Country" and he adds, "The beautiful love of virtue should not be sought in foreign models; domestic praise renews the spirits, and it is much better to know triumphs at home", which expresses the feelings of New Spain at that time. And the New Spaniards, proud of what was theirs, sought to be different - not imitating other models - and in order to do so, they had to imagine themselves, which produced that wonderful floating baroque which was the artistic expression of the Mexican feeling of grandeur. New Spain wanted to ride Pegasus and attempt glory: Sic itur ad astra, "Thus one goes to the stars", with imagination and love of Country.