The Quest for the Unicorn has gone on long before you or I were born, Or even thought of for that matter. This page will explore the possibility, the myth, and the attraction of the Unicorns existence. I have been studying Unicorns as a past time for awhile, and while I am no expert, and have uncovered nothing new about the Unicorn, the info I have acquired is interesting in its own rights. I hope you learn something new in your search.
To Catch A Unicorn:
The
Pre Medieval Unicorn
The following is from a talk I gave in one of my classes about Unicorns in the Medieval Times...
In the ancient western world the legend of the Unicorn lived merely from book to book. It had no place in creative literature or the arts. The Unicorn was unheard of in religious symbolism and mythology, and if it appeared in the ancient folklore of the Mediterranean it left no trace.
The Unicorn legend first emerges in literature in the early 4th century B.C. with the Physician Ctesias. The 25th fragment of his work Indica, c 416 B.C., is the first and foremost of the European documents relating to the Unicorn.
Ctesias' Unicorn is the Wild Ass of India. It is as large as a horse or
larger; the body is white, the head dark red, and eyes dark blue. The horn
is a foot and 1/2 long, pure white at its base, black in the middle and
dark crimson at the tip. No other creature can overtake it in a run. It
fights with its horn, teeth and hooves, and keeps increasing speed as it
runs. Ctesias also tells about the magic of the horn, saying if you drink
from a beaker made from the horn you are not subject to convulsions of
the Holy Disorder (Epilepsy) and are immune to poisons after drinking from
the beaker.
Ctesias' Unicorn was pieced together from travelers tales told around the campfire. Pooling together all that they had seen and heard, each person contributed something to the tale. This work is one of the two main sources from which western Unicorn legend comes to us.
Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C.) believed in the existence of the one-horned Indian Ass, but also in that of a Onyx with only one horn and solid hoofs. The Unicorn temporarily disappeared from literature after Aristotle, yet in the 400 years between him and Pliny the Elder the legend somehow made progress.
Pliny the Elder (c23-79) wrote several passages on Unicorns. He is important because his beliefs about the Unicorn were those of almost every reader of Latin for more than a thousand years. Pliny differs from Ctesias in that his Unicorn has a stag's head, the solid hoof of the elephant, a boar's tail, and the body of a horse. His Unicorn makes a lowing sound and it's horn is all black.
The third major person for evolving this early unicorn legend is Aelian (c170-235). By this time we have left Ctesias' Unicorn far behind. Aelian's work will be studied and restated many times over the following 1500 years. Aelian's Unicorn has a solid black horn with natural rings. His version of the Unicorn has the solid hoof of the elephant and the tail of a goat, with a very strong body. And again the Unicorn is said to have a dissonant voice.
There are a few other people who have contributed to the Myth of the Unicorn.
Julius Slinus was the first Person to say that the horn shines with a wonderful
brightness. Solinus' horn is about four feet long; he also calls the Unicorn
a monster. Apollonius of Tyana says that if you drink from the horn beaker
you are free of poison for a whole day. Oppian returns to saying that the
horn is colored white, black and red. While Julius Caeser says that the
Unicorn has the form of a stag with one horn.
Another Unicorn legend originated in Alexandria where a number of animal stories were collected, some drawn from past knowledge others had created to serve the immediate need. Each story was fitted with a moral, and this collected work came to be called Physiologus (2-4 century). In Europe, in the later centuries it was called the "Bestiary." This collection was condemned in 496 by Pope Gelasius as a work of Heretics. Despite this it remained popular and influential for over a thousand years. This work is what is responsible for the wide spreading of the Unicorn legend. The Physiologus Unicorn is small like a kid (baby goat), yet still resembles a horse with a beard and cloven hooves. In this work we get the first mention of a maiden used as a lure for the unicorn. All of the copies of this work refer to the Unicorn as Jesus.
(Continued from my talk . . .)
Due to the Bestiaries with their mystery of Christian faith, the Unicorn became firmly fixed in the popular imagination of people in Europe. No in in Europe ever saw a lion, elephant, or a panther, yet these were accepted with out question. These creatures were no less fantastic than the Unicorn, yet all were considered to be real, along with the griffin, the dragon, the basilisk, and the salamander that lives in fire. Because of the beauty and the holiness of the Unicorn, it was considered the most important of all beasts. It was not considered to be Mythical, legendary, or supernatural, nor was the Unicorn symbolic in any degree more than any other creature who was held in high regard, the lamb for example.
The Medieval Unicorn was smaller than a horse, most often the size of a baby goat. The size of the horn did not matter to the normal person, since many people could not come to an agreement about the length. The horn was thought to be black by learned people and white by the average person, yet most people agreed that the horn was spiraled with rings.
The horn was believed to be a detector of poison, and due to the constant
changing and growth of Medieval medicine, the Alicorn (the name of a Unicorns
horn) was not to stay only as a detector of poison. The horn also became
a therapeutic agent. Before the 16th century the horn was prescribed for
curing poisons, for fevers, for bites from mad dogs and scorpions, the
falling sickness, worms, fluxes, loss of memory, the plague, and prolongation
of youth.
Because of the Unicorns dual ancestry, descending from the horse and the ass of India on the side of Ctesias, and the goat on the side of Physiologus, during the middle ages there was a series of hybrid variations of the Unicorn. Some examples are a Unicorn with cloven hooves on its forefeet and solid hooves on its hind feet, a goat beard on the horses head, or even the even the head of a goat on a horses body, and any possible combination of the above.
The Unicorn became the emblem of unlimited and undivided sovereign power.
Unicorns once captured were brought to the king, because they belonged
to him. In Bestiaries there is frequent mention that only kings can hunt
the Unicorn. Aelian, also mentions that the young Unicorns are also taken
to the king if captured. The Unicorn thus became a symbol of royalty as
well.
The Unicorn also became a symbol of heraldry, the science of armorial bearings. This happened for several reasons: the Unicorns identification with Christ and the association with the Virgin, the water conning trait (that of water purification), and the world wide reputation of the horns magical abilities. Due to the foremost chivalric virtue, chastity, the Unicorn became the figure of many Knightly seal and coats of arms. Other reasons for the popularity of the heraldic Unicorn were: its kinship to the horse the knights closest companion and weapon, its headlong devotion to beautiful women (which was also a knights favorite pastime), and the Unicorn's unique mixture of being fierce, proud and dangerous, while being gentle at the same time. During the Medieval times since Coat of Arms were seen almost everywhere, a person can see how the Unicorn legend flourished so easily.
The Christian symbolism of the Unicorn came mainly from the mention of the Unicorn in the bible, but was fully developed by Physiologus. Symbolic significance is that the Unicorn is Christ. Other symbolism is due to its purity, and solitude (Which would later lead the Unicorn to represent the monastic order.) One belief is that the unconquerable nature of God is shown in the Unicorn. Another belief is that the Unicorn stands for the Hebrew people and the horn is the one law that they share. From the 3rd century to the period of the Reformation, the Unicorn represented the Body of Christ. From the 13th - 16th century, the Unicorn found a home in Ecclesiastic decoration which was continuous and widespread.
The story of the water-conning says that the beasts of the forest will not drink from a poisoned water hole, but will wait for the Unicorn to come. The Unicorn will then dip its horn into the water and purify it. The Greek version of Physiologus shows us the first sign of the water-conning trait, saying that the Unicorn makes the sign of the cross over the water with its horn. The Significance of this trait is explained by someone else that the horn is the holy cross and the serpent (which refers to the poison) is the devil. Seeing how this explanation suits the Christian Allegory of the Middle Ages, it is suprising that it was not mentions in the Bestiaries of western Europe. It was known eventually in the west but not till later and then only in learned circles.
The use of the maiden to catch the Unicorn came from Physiologus. The Maiden was brought to the forest and placed in the path of the beast. The Unicorn would smell her innocence and come to her. Laying its head in her lap it would be killed by the hunters, or captured and taken to the king. Through all the copies of the Bestiaries, the maiden as a lure was prominent. Yet there were differences: the Unicorn might fall asleep in her lap, her breasts might have to be showing, the Unicorn may react differently, and one says that the maiden has to touch the horn of the Unicorn to gain control.
The Unicorn is the only imaginary animal of Physiologus that passed over
into the renaissance and was most important figure in menageries of fancy
that swarmed the Cathedrals of Europe in 13th century. Of all the creative
creatures that existed in the minds of the medieval people, one that still
lives on strong in the modern world is the Unicorn. The Unicorn can be
seen in poems, as the hero of several contemporary fairy tales, on jewelry,
textiles, statues, as decoration, and in cartoons.
HISTORY:
The Unicorn Web Page - A detailed look into the growth of the Unicorn Tradition
ART:
The
Unicorn Grove
Nesya's
Unicorn Picture Page - The Ultimate collection of Unicorn Pictures
OTHERS WITH SIMILAR INTERESTS:
Geoff's
Unicorn Page - A good place to begin your search
Bonni's Unicorns and Thoughts Thereon
A Unicorn Poem
- Written by Sherry Randall
Mystical Unicorn
Sarah's Unicorn
Page
Heidi's Unicorn
Page
The Fantasy Realm
- Where the magic begins
Email: Kassandra@mindless.com 
