First published 2012 by MJ Group, Creative Imaging© 2012 Becca Haywood

The Unicorn has been depicted in books and paintings throughout history as a rare and noble beast. Many men claimed to have witnessed the mythical creature, describing them in their journals and illustrating their beauty. Some claimed it to be the size of a large ass with feet like an elephants, others claimed it to look more like a goat with cloven hooves. No description was exactly alike, except everyone who claimed to have seen one said it had a singular horn on it’s head.

For years their existence was never questioned and many paid large amounts of money to claim a unicorn’s horn, even though there was no substantial evidence.

There are even mentions of unicorns in the Bible, but unfortunately it turns out to be a mistranslation.

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The very first description of a unicorn was in 4th Century BC by Ctesias, a Greek physician who was travelling around India. He was recording his findings and logging them in a journal to take home and spread his knowledge, as Asia was seen as mysterious, exotic and full of the unknown..

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Looking back now at what Ctesias described as a “unicorn”...

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... was in fact most likely to have been the Indian rhinoceros is also known as the greater one-horned rhinoceros.

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Whether he too far away from the creature to clearly see it, or if the heat had wavered his judgement or impared his vision, we will never know.

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Ctesias firmly believed the beast he saw was not a rhinoceros, but a strange mammal with the body of a horse, the tail of a boar, the head of a deer and a single horn.

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Of course in that time not many people had travelled to India and so “freaks” and “marvels” were accepted to easily exist.

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The unicorn entered into accepted knowledge almost entirely, but was frequently redescribed. But nobody had any reason to doubt the claims and saw them as reliable sources.

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In the 3rd Century the Bible was translated from Hebrew to Greek, and in it “unicorns” were mentioned several times. From the context the beast had horns but was neither a cow nor an ox. Monoceros is the Greek word for unicorn.

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The confusion was caused by mistaking of the word “rim” or “rimu”, which means oryx or wild ox, for the word “re’em” which is translated directly as unicorn. Coincidentally, the oryx was often mistaken for a unicorn. It’s horns are so symmetrical, when seen from the side they appear as a singular horn.

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Medieval knowledge of the fabulous beast stemmed from biblical and ancient sources, and the creature was variously represented as a wild, un-tamable animal of great strength and agility. It became a popular tale that the beast with one horn could only be tamed by a virgin.

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Hunters would use a young maiden to entice a unicorn. It was said as soon as the unicorn saw her, it would lay its head on her lap and falls asleep. Then she would grab the horn and the hunters would capture it.

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This story then took on a few different meanings. One of the most popular being an elaborate allegory in which a unicorn, trapped by a maiden (representing the Virgin Mary), stood for the Incarnation.

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More romantically it symbolized chaste love and faithful marriage, as the lover is attracted to his lady as the unicorn is to the virgin.

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To others it was symbolic of something a little more phallic...

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All stories of the unicorn have been retold and have many reinterpretations.

However only one story of their existence seems logical to some...

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In the 16th Century international trades opened up and people were able to see all kinds of animals. Scholars sent back report of their findings as well as some of the objects they discovered.

“The horn of the unicorn” was widely sought after as the Arabic claimed it had medicinal properties, that it purified water from all poisons by drinking from the horn. This was of course entirely false, but soon many believed that the unicorn was deemed to have “magical powers”. The horn was used in Renaissance medicine to combat many ailments, usually in powdered form or shards.

The horns themselves actually came from the waters of Greenland, where Vikings traded Narwhal tusks. Not many people even knew of the existence of Narwhals and paid vast amounts of money for the tusks fully believing they truly came from unicorns.

As the market for the unicorn horn grew, the Christian story of incarnation associated with the unicorn was abandoned for so many people were buying and selling the horn.

Since then the unicorn is now only found in Heraldry where it symbolizes a strong beast breaking free from chains, or in Apothecary as a symbol of purity or value.

That is until the 60’s, where it began to be used as a marketing tool targeting little girls with the image of a pretty pony with a horn, surrounded by rainbows and sparkles. The symbol of the fierce and noble beast was no more...

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Is it really a unicorn...?

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A horse impaled with a crowbar.

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A donkey wearing a traffic cone.

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A goat that has had an icecream dropped on it’s head.

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A llama wearing a party hat.

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An african snail crawling on a bear’s head.

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