Unicorns
I. Image scan: of Lady & Unicorn Mythology - Myths, Legends, & Fantasies, (2008), Global Book Publishing, Australia, p.2-3
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The unicorn has become a fairytale mythical creature of modern times. It is often portrayed as a fairy princesses pony with a single horn and magical powers.
Notice the goat's beard on what appears to be a horses body in the painting on the left. It was more likely a real animal which has become extinct in the last 500 years. Rather than being portrayed as a small horse, in earlier paintings it is portrayed as a goat with a single horn. The unicorn therefore may have been a real living variety of goat with a single-horn. It maybe that the genetic propensity for single-horn may still be viable in some breeds of wild-type goats today. Notice the goat's hooves and beard in the painting below: |
I. Image scan: Myths, Legends, & Fantasies, (2008), Global Book Publishing, Australia, p. 267 Unicorn from Histoire des Juifs by Flavius Josephus.
The painting on the left shows various animals in the Garden of Eden. Among them are recognisable deer, ponies, and a type of goat. These animals appear to be in pairs indicating male and females of the species. Notice, of the two goat-like animals one has antlers with two prominent horns, while the mate has a single horn - a unihorn.
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Marco Polo (1254-1324) speaks thus about Unicorns:
Marco Polo travelled through Badakhshan or Balashan, ruled by Persia and Greece in antiquity. Alexander The Great ruled these lands. Marco states:
"There used to be horses in this country that were directly descended from Alexander's horse Bucephalus out of mares that had conceived from him and they were all born like him with a horn on the forehead. This breed was entirely in the possession of one of the king's uncles, who, because he refused to let the king have any, was put to death by him. Thereupon his wife, to avenge her husband's death, destroyed the whole breed, and so it became extinct."
'Bu' means Ox, and 'cephalus' means head: Oxhead. Therefore, Alexander The Great's horse Bucephalus was named oxhead. Coins minted from this time show a horse with 2 horns like an ox. Alexander The Great's horse saved his life in a battle and died shortly after. The village where the horse is buried was named by Alexander after his horse - Bucephalon.
Marco Polo travelled to Burma, the province of Mien, where he states:
"He then proceeds for fifteen days through very inaccessible places and through vast jungles teeming with elephants, unicorns, and other wild beasts."
On his travels to Lesser Java or Sumatra Marco Polo visited the kingdom of Ferlec and upon leaving Ferlec a separate kingdom known as Basman, where he says:
"They have wild elephants and plenty of unicorns, which are scarcely smaller than elephants. They have the hair of a buffalo and feet like an elephant's. They have a single large, black horn in the middle of the forehead. They do not attack with their horn, but only with their tongue and their knees; for their tongues are furnished with long, sharp spines, so that when they want to do any harm to anyone they first crush him by kneeling upon him and then lacerate him with their tongues. They have a head like a wild boar's and always carry it stooped toward the ground. They spend their time by preference wallowing in mud and slime. They are very ugly brutes to look at. They are not at all such as we describe them when we relate that they let themselves be captured by virgins, but clean contrary to our notions."
Now a rare and endangered animal. The above description sounds very similar to the Sumatran Rhinoceros.
Marco Polo travelled through Badakhshan or Balashan, ruled by Persia and Greece in antiquity. Alexander The Great ruled these lands. Marco states:
"There used to be horses in this country that were directly descended from Alexander's horse Bucephalus out of mares that had conceived from him and they were all born like him with a horn on the forehead. This breed was entirely in the possession of one of the king's uncles, who, because he refused to let the king have any, was put to death by him. Thereupon his wife, to avenge her husband's death, destroyed the whole breed, and so it became extinct."
'Bu' means Ox, and 'cephalus' means head: Oxhead. Therefore, Alexander The Great's horse Bucephalus was named oxhead. Coins minted from this time show a horse with 2 horns like an ox. Alexander The Great's horse saved his life in a battle and died shortly after. The village where the horse is buried was named by Alexander after his horse - Bucephalon.
Marco Polo travelled to Burma, the province of Mien, where he states:
"He then proceeds for fifteen days through very inaccessible places and through vast jungles teeming with elephants, unicorns, and other wild beasts."
On his travels to Lesser Java or Sumatra Marco Polo visited the kingdom of Ferlec and upon leaving Ferlec a separate kingdom known as Basman, where he says:
"They have wild elephants and plenty of unicorns, which are scarcely smaller than elephants. They have the hair of a buffalo and feet like an elephant's. They have a single large, black horn in the middle of the forehead. They do not attack with their horn, but only with their tongue and their knees; for their tongues are furnished with long, sharp spines, so that when they want to do any harm to anyone they first crush him by kneeling upon him and then lacerate him with their tongues. They have a head like a wild boar's and always carry it stooped toward the ground. They spend their time by preference wallowing in mud and slime. They are very ugly brutes to look at. They are not at all such as we describe them when we relate that they let themselves be captured by virgins, but clean contrary to our notions."
Now a rare and endangered animal. The above description sounds very similar to the Sumatran Rhinoceros.
References
I. Image scans: of Lady & Unicorn Mythology - Myths, Legends, & Fantasies, (2008), Global Book Publishing, Australia, p.2-3. Unicorn by Annibale Carracci (1560-1609) & p. 267 Unicorn from Histoire des Juifs by Flavius Josephus.
II. Image scan: part of the 16th Century 'Garden of Eden' by Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Atlas of Legendary Lands - Fabled Kingdoms, Phantom Islands, Lost Continents and Other Mythical Worlds, Judith A. McLeod, Pier 9 Publishers, Part 2, Page 56.
1. The Travels of Marco Polo, Roland Latham translation, Penguin Books, London England, published 1958, p.77, p.188, p.253.
I. Image scans: of Lady & Unicorn Mythology - Myths, Legends, & Fantasies, (2008), Global Book Publishing, Australia, p.2-3. Unicorn by Annibale Carracci (1560-1609) & p. 267 Unicorn from Histoire des Juifs by Flavius Josephus.
II. Image scan: part of the 16th Century 'Garden of Eden' by Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Atlas of Legendary Lands - Fabled Kingdoms, Phantom Islands, Lost Continents and Other Mythical Worlds, Judith A. McLeod, Pier 9 Publishers, Part 2, Page 56.
1. The Travels of Marco Polo, Roland Latham translation, Penguin Books, London England, published 1958, p.77, p.188, p.253.