Unicorn

The Lady and the Unicorn (sight); late-15th century Flemish wool and silk tapestry, part of a series of six in the Musée National du Moyen Age, Paris, France.

Unicorn (the Latin: ūnicornis; "one-horned") is a mythological animal resembling a white horse with a single horn growing out of its forehead, and depicted in art and heraldry since 3000 BC in places as far apart as Mesopotamia, China, India, and southern Europe.

History

The ancient Greeks also knew of unicorns by way of descriptions of the animal by Ctesias who had traveled to the Persian Court and collected tales of India from travelers. His description of the unicorn (Greek: μονόκερως; "monokeros") from 416 B.C. is the oldest known written account:

"There are in India certain wild asses which are as large as horses, and larger. Their bodies are white, their heads are dark red, and their eyes dark blue. They have a horn on the forehead which is about eighteen inches in length. The dust filed from this horn is administered in a potion as a protection against deadly drugs."

Unicorns are mentioned in the King James Bible nine times and have, since at least 200 AD, been a common feature of Christian art and symbolism, often in heraldry where they are more often than not portrayed as supporters en rampant to the shield on the arms of individual families or royalty. It is typically used to symbolize virtue of mind and strength of body, but has also been used as an emblem of Christ as the horn of our Salvation.

Claimed sightings

In his Natural History the Roman Pliny the Elder mentions a number of animals native to India, one of which he described as "a very ferocious beast, similar in the rest of its body to a horse, with the head of a deer, the feet of an elephant, the tail of a boar, a deep, bellowing voice, and a signle black horn, two cubits in length, standing out in the middle of its forehead." In 1389 AD the German priest John of Hesse, while on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, witnessed a unicorn water-conning near Mount Sinai. In 1567 AD Vincent Le Blanc saw a unicorn at Mecca. In 1800 AD ancient primitive depictions of unicorns were found in a cave in Namaqualand, South Africa and in 1820 Major Latter of the British Army saw unicorns in Tibet. The accounts given in the Bible mention the re'um, which has been translated as "unicorn" in the King James Version, talk of the power of the animal, i.e. "God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows."

Unicorns and reality

The fossil record so far has not exposed the remains of a horse or horse-like animal bearing a single horn upon its forehead, so descriptive tales by the ancients up until modern history are probably sightings of real horned animals seen in profile, the best known example being the Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx), a rare animal found in the wild only on the Arabian peninsula, but which ranged over a much larger area in ancient times. The horns of the oryx are perfectly-straight, and when seen in profile it appears to have a single horn upon its forehead. The accounts of Ctesias and Pliny appear to have been based on the description of the Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis), while in the Bible the word re'um translates not into unicorn, but into "ox"; the aurochs (Bos primigenius) has been named as a candidate for that animal. Tusks of the narwhal (Monodon monoceros), with their distinctive spiral shape, have often been mistaken for or advanced as unicorn horns in the past.

Deer and goats have also been claimed to be the unicorn, provided that the antlers and horns have grown into a single structure. A single horned deer was born in Italy, while domesticated goats with a single horn have occasionally appeared in the United States, often connected with circuses. Gilberto Tozzi, director of the Center of Natural Sciences in Prato, stated the following regarding the single horned deer: "This shows that even in past times, there could have been animals with this anomaly.” Atheistic scientists also gloat over how narwhal tusks, with their distinctive spiraled shape, have often been mistaken for or advanced as unicorn horns in the past.

In 1984 the U.S. patent office granted patent number 4,429,685 to the liberal Timothy G. Zell for his development of a surgical procedure to create a "unicorn" from a horned animal. The basis for the patent was "Lancelot the living unicorn" (actually a goat) bred by Timothy "Otter" Zell and his wife Morning Glory Zell.

See Also

• Leviathan
• Behemoth