Unicorn

This article is about the legendary animal. For other uses, see Unicorn (disambiguation). Not to be confused with Unicron or Unicon (disambiguation).

The unicorn is a legendary creature. People have described it since antiquity as a beast with one large, pointed, twisting horn on its forehead.

For about the last thousand years, European books and art have shown the unicorn as a white animal. It looks like a horse or a goat. It has a long, straight horn with spiral grooves, split hooves, and sometimes a goat's beard. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, people often described it as a wild woodland creature. It was a symbol of purity and grace. People believed that only a virgin could catch it. Writers of encyclopedias said its horn could make poisoned water safe to drink and could heal sickness. During medieval and Renaissance times, the tusk of the narwhal was sometimes sold as a unicorn horn.

Some scholars think that a unicorn of the bovine (cow-like) type appeared on seals from the Bronze Age Indus Valley civilization. This idea is still debated. The ancient Greeks also wrote about a horse-like unicorn in their books about natural history. Several writers did this, including Ctesias, Strabo, Pliny the Younger, Aelian, and Cosmas Indicopleustes. Some versions of re'em, a word found in the Hebrew Bible, are translated as "unicorn." You can find it in Psalm 92:11 and Deuteronomy 33:17.

The unicorn still has a place in popular culture. It is often used as a symbol of fantasy or rarity. In the 21st century, it has become an LGBTQ symbol.

History

In the Bronze Age Indus Valley civilization, around 2000 BC, people made small soapstone stamp seals. The most common picture on them was a one-horned animal, which we now often call a unicorn. It looked more like a cow than a horse and had a curved horn. We do not know exactly what it meant. It may have been a symbol for a powerful "clan or merchant community," and it may also have had religious meaning. In South Asia, this unicorn disappeared after the Indus Valley period. Jonathan Mark Kenoyer said it has no "direct connection" to later unicorns in other parts of the world. It may still have helped inspire later stories about one-horned creatures in West Asia.

Unicorns do not appear in Greek mythology. They appear in writings about natural history, because Greek writers believed unicorns lived in India. The earliest description came from Ctesias. In his book Indika ("On India"), he wrote that they were wild asses with a horn about a cubit and a half long (700 mm, 28 inches). He said the animals were white, red and black. Later writers, including Pliny the Elder and Aelian, described other one-horned animals. In the 6th century, Cosmas Indicopleustes described a unicorn based on bronze figures he saw in the palace of the King of Ethiopia.

In the Medieval period, unicorns were shown as a kind of wild ass, goat, or horse. An early book of animal stories, called Physiologus, is the start of the bestiary tradition. It described a unicorn that was caught by a young woman. She stood for the Virgin Mary and the Incarnation. Unicorns became common in religious art and in other kinds of art. They were a symbol of purity and faithful love. People also said that only a virgin could tame a unicorn. Later, Marco Polo described rhinoceroses, which he called unicorns. He said they were very ugly and spent their time in mud.

People believed that a unicorn's horn, called alicorn, had magical and healing powers. In 1638, the Danish doctor Ole Worm found that these horns were really the tusks of narwhals. Fake alicorn powder was still sold in Europe as medicine as late as 1741. Cups made from alicorn were given to kings. Many of these cups were actually made of ivory from elephant or walrus tusks.

Entrapment

Some old stories say hunters could catch a unicorn in a special way. In one of his notebooks, Leonardo da Vinci wrote about the unicorn. The famous late Gothic series of seven tapestry hangings The Hunt of the Unicorn is a high point of European tapestry making. Today the tapestries hang in the Cloisters division of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. In the series, rich noblemen and hunters chase a unicorn against mille-fleur backgrounds. A young woman lures it, and the hunters appear to kill it. In the last panel, "The Unicorn in Captivity", the unicorn is alive and happy, chained to a pomegranate tree. Scholars think the red marks on its body may be pomegranate juice, a symbol of growth, rather than blood. The meaning of the returned unicorn is still unclear. The series was woven about 1500 in the Low Countries, probably in Brussels or Liège, for an unknown owner. The French artist Jean Duvet later made six engravings on the same theme in the 1540s.

Another set of six tapestries, Dame à la licorne ("Lady with the unicorn"), is in the Musée de Cluny in Paris. These were also woven in the Southern Netherlands before 1500. They show the five senses and finally Love, with unicorns in each piece. Copies of these tapestries were made for Stirling Castle in Scotland, replacing a set listed in the castle's 16th-century inventory. Unicorns also appeared in religious art. In one rare late-15th-century picture of the hortus conclusus, the Annunciation to Mary was combined with the unicorn hunt. The unicorn already stood for the Incarnation, though it is not always clear whether this meaning was intended. In some scenes the archangel Gabriel blows a horn while hounds chase the unicorn toward the Virgin. The Council of Trent later banned this overly elaborate style, partly because no one now believed the unicorn was a real animal. Shakespeare scholars describe another hunting method: a hunter stood in front of a tree while the unicorn was made to charge. The hunter stepped aside at the last moment, and the unicorn's horn stuck deep in the tree, as described in Timon of Athens.

Heraldry

In heraldry, a unicorn is often shown as a horse with a goat's cloven hooves and beard, a lion's tail, and a slender, spiral horn on its forehead. Early heraldry did not use the unicorn much, but it became popular from the 15th century. It is usually shown with a broken chain on its collar, which means it has broken free. In heraldry, the unicorn is best known as a symbol of Scotland. It was believed to be the natural enemy of the lion, a symbol that the English royals had adopted about a hundred years earlier. Two unicorns supported the royal arms of the King of Scots and Duke of Rothesay. Since the 1707 union of England and Scotland, the royal arms of the United Kingdom have been supported by a unicorn and an English lion. Golden unicorn coins, with a unicorn on the obverse, were used in Scotland in the 15th and 16th centuries. Carved unicorns were used as finials on Mercat crosses, showing that a settlement was a royal burgh. The Earl of Kinnoull was given special permission to use the unicorn in his arms, as an augmentation of honour. The crest of Clan Cunningham bears a unicorn head.

See also: The Lion and the Unicorn

Modern culture

See also: Unicorn trend

See also: LGBTQ symbols

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, unicorns became popular again. They appeared in children's toys, clothing, stationery, and digital media. They were also common in books and animated shows such as My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and Unicorn Academy. Google Ngram data shows that references to unicorns in English-language books rose during this time. Adults also enjoyed unicorn designs in food, fashion, and online style. This was part of the "unicorn trend," which used rainbow colors, sparkles, and fantasy designs. Toymakers made toys and accessories with unicorn-style horns. Unicorn-themed birthday parties also became popular.

By the beginning of the 21st century, unicorns had become a queer symbol.

The rainbow flag was created by American artist Gilbert Baker in 1978. It shows the diversity of the queer community. It became well known during the gay rights protests of the 1970s and 1980s. Unicorns had been linked to rainbows since the Victorian era, and they came to stand for the queer community. No one is sure exactly how this happened. Some people say the unicorn's gender fluidity makes it a good symbol for the LGBTQ community. In ancient myths, the unicorn was usually shown as male. Today it is usually shown as female.

Similar animals in religion and myth

The re'em is an animal mentioned many times in the Hebrew Bible, where it often stands for strength. It was a wild, very strong animal with one or more large horns. It most likely matches the aurochs, a large wild ox. Ancient Mesopotamian art often showed it from the side with only one horn visible. The Authorized King James Version of 1611 used the word "unicorn" for re'em, following the Septuagint and the Vulgate. The American Standard Version calls it "wild ox." Classical Jewish teaching did not identify the re'em as a unicorn. Some rabbis in the Talmud discussed whether the Tahash was a single-horned kosher animal, or was similar to the keresh. Marcus Jastrow described the keresh as "a kind of antelope, unicorn."

The qilin is a creature from Chinese mythology. It is sometimes called "the Chinese unicorn," but it is more like a chimera than a unicorn. It has a deer's body, a lion's head, green scales, and a long, forward-curving horn. The Japanese version, the kirin, looks more like the Western unicorn. The Quẻ Ly from Vietnamese myth is also sometimes called a unicorn. It is a symbol of wealth and prosperity. It first appeared to Emperor Duong Cao To after a military victory that helped him conquer Tây Nguyên. In 2012, the Korea News Service reported that the Kiringul had been found. It was linked to a kirin ridden by King Dongmyeong of Goguryeo. Starting in the Ming dynasty, the qilin became linked with giraffes. This happened after a voyage by Zheng He to East Africa...