Unicorns:
What is a Unicorn?
It is a common misconception that a Unicorn is simply a white horse with a single horn growing from its forehead. In fact a Unicorn is something altogether different from a horse. Unicorns do appear very similar to horses, a very noble creature in its own right, but the Unicorn has some very unique physical differences from a horse. For one, the tail is usually similar to that of a lion's, being long and slender with a tuft of hair at the end, and some flowing strands lining the length of the tail. The Unicorn has a "beard" upon it's chin, much like that of a goat, as well as having cloven hooves, also much like a goat. Now I do not proclaim that the majestic beast that is the Unicorn is merely a glorified goat, hardly, but rather it seems to have evolved from the melding of the two creatures, which would lead sensibly to the appearance of the single horn, which of course is what truly makes the Unicorn the creature of myth and magic that it has become today.

The Unicorn was not always seen as the majestic creature of astounding beauty and innocence that it is imagined of today. In fact it was once known as the savage and wild monster Monocerous, which is Greek, also meaning Unicorn, which is Latin for "one horn." Ctesias described this savage creature as "like a horse in the rest of its body, but resembles a stag in its head, an elephant in its feet, and a wild boar in its tail...it bellows dreadfully" and has "a single black horn projecting two cubits from the middle of its forehead." Not at all the mythical beauty we associate as being a Unicorn today. There are tales from India of a creature called Kartazonos whose single horn had healing powers, of magical strength, rendering he who drank from its horn, virtually immune to illness. Both of these wild and beastly creatures seem so unlike the gentle beast we know today. So where did the modern Unicorn come from?

With no real evidence of the existence of Unicorns, how did they come to exist. Interestingly enough I turn to the Bible as a reference. The creature of myth had found its way into one of the most sacred books of all time and thus earned a place in the hearts of many faithful believers. In the King James Version of the Bible the Unicorn is known as the Bos primigenius, actually an extinct two-horned ox that was once found around Syria. And yet the myth lives on. So does it then leave us to faith alone that we must turn to find evidence to reveal what is truth or what is fantasy? There have been others who have asked similar questions. First the Greeks and then the Romans carried the quest to find the beast of myth. Then with the dawn of Christianity, and an increasing number of stories about the one horned creature with magical healing powers being told, people began to search for a Christian meaning to the savage and wild beast.

What was once a beast, fearsome and dark of nature, was transformed into a symbol of purity, of innocence, and even deity. The Unicorn became a purifier of water, the innocence of a fair maiden, and even a symbol of Jesus, the Son of God. In an early 15th century representation of the Garden of Eden, many known and unknown creatures dwell, amongst which are the Unicorn and the serpent. Going back to the Bible we know that the serpent represents the fallen Lucifer, and yet here is the Unicorn, whose horn represents the "Horn of Salvation from the House of David," being a symbol for Christ. In many of these early artworks depicting Unicorns, the Unicorn holds a place of honor, or a symbolic place. As time wore on a new story began to be told of the Unicorn, that of the hunt.

In the search of the Unicorn, and the desire to catch the beast with the magical horn, many hunters had tried in vain to overcome its strength and swiftness for the beast was unattainable, even with hounds and well-laid traps. The myth arose that a maiden, pure and chaste could capture the Unicorn, which would willingly surrender to her innocence. It was then that the hunters would emerge from hiding to lay siege on the captured prey, and pierce it with their spears or place a chain about its neck. This became one of the best known and widely rendered tales of the Unicorn. That of the captured Unicorn with its head upon the maidens lap being slain by the cruel hunter seeking the magical horn.

It was the story of the hunt which gave rise to the symbolism between the Christ child and the innocent Unicorn. There is the pure maiden, representing the Virgin Mary, the Unicorn, representing Christ, who died for sins of mankind, and the hunter, was the Angel Gabriel who came to tell Mary of the coming birth of the King of Kings, foreshadowing his sacrifice upon the cross. It was this symbolic pairing of chaste maidens with the innocence and purity of the Unicorn that gave rise to the Unicorn being a symbol of the goodness and honor in women, much as the lion stood for the courage and strength of man.

And so now we turn to the rivalry between the Unicorn and the Lion. I have to ask myself, if the Unicorn is a symbol of woman, and the lion a symbol of man, is the struggle betwixt the two symbolic of our own battle between ourselves? An olde rhyme goes:

The Lion and the Unicorn
Were fighting for the Crown
The Lion beat the Unicorn
All round the town.

In one saying it is said that the Lion beat the Unicorn by subtlety and not strength, so rather it was his wit that won the heart of the fair and noble Unicorn. So now one might ask are women subject to man? I dare say not, but rather I think it is a balance of the powers, for together combined they have honor, strength, goodness and courage. How more noble could the two creatures be? And to ancient and modern nobility such standards represented in these beasts were commonly seen upon their breastplates, shields, and heralds. Through the ages the rivalry between these two noble beasts seemed to turn from fighting for the crown, to collectively defending the crown.