Three Kinds of Unicorns

Conventional European (Medieval) unicorn and one-horned oryx 'Everyone is supposed to know' that a unicorn is 'supposed to be' a creature much like a white horse with a single twisted horn growing out of the centre of its head. There is much supporting evidence to indicate that this version of the unicorn (the most recent) is based on traveller's tales of the Arabian oryx. Odell Shepard's The Lore of the Unicorn collects most of the earlier material published about the unicorn and among the other information we find that it is an 'antelope' with the specific features of antelopes and not horses: it has cloven hooves and the horn is twisted and straight. Then we find out that not only had several authors in antiquity identified the unicorn (or monoceros) with the oryx, one of the better compilers of unicorn lore even proved that the oryx and the unicorn were the same because according to the ancient writers the oryx was specified as having only one horn! Indeed, it is not uncommon to see a male oryx that has broken one of the horns during combat. This may happen to any horned mammal with paired horns, hence explorers during the Age of Discovery could hear rumours of unicorns almost anywhere they went. In the United States mountain men were more likely to hear of mountain goat 'unicorns' when the animal had lost one of its horns through a mishap. These photos of oryxes are all of African sorts because they are more abundant these days. The African ones have more contrasting 'socks' on their legs; the Arabian oryx is more of a pale washed-out effect overall. It is easy enough to see how these animals might appear to have only one horn to a casual observer. Eric Topsell's Unicorn from Histoire of the Four-Footed Beastes The animal is presented as a horse but still has the antelope's hooves and the (single) antelope horn aligned in the wrong direction. However, there is an older version of the unicorn as a powerful and surly brute, similar in appearance and build to a gigantic black bull and with the large horn placed on its forehead like a huge and heavy spear. Willy Ley was probably the first one to suggest that this creature was the supposedly-extinct rhinoceros Elasmotherium. The cave at Lascaux includes many famous CroMagnon paintings. One of the creatures that remains unidentified is the unicorn although it might have one horn (not closed off at the end ot two long parallel horns. There happen to be other representations of such creatures in CroMagnon art in which there is definitely meant to be one horn growing out of the forehead AND the creature has a strong overall resemblance to a rhinoceros. Elasmotherium is a supposedly-extinct Ice Age rhinoceros with a unique placement of the horn at the centre of its head, and estimates are that the horn could have been two or three yards long in life. Following from Wikipedia, here is another entry that also sounds strongly like an Elasmotherium: Indrik From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia In Russian folklore, the Indrik-Beast (Russian: Индрик-зверь, transliteration: Indrik zver' ) is a fabulous beast, the king of all animals, who lives on a mountain known as "The Holy Mountain" where no other foot may tread. When it stirs, the Earth trembles. The word "Indrik" is a distorted version of the Russian word edinorog (unicorn)."[1] The Indrik is described as a gigantic bull with the head of a horse and an enormous horn in its snout, making it vaguely similar to a rhinoceros. The Russian folklore creature gives its name to Indricotherium, the biggest land mammal ever to live [=Baluchitherium] Another Elasmotherium reconstruction, seemingly meant to show the creature in summer coat. More of the Wikipedia reference on Unicorns is quoted below, but this section is pertinent here: Unicorn seals of the Indus Valley Civilization The first objects unearthed from Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were small stone seals inscribed with elegant depictions of animals, including a unicorn-like figure in upper left, and marked with Indus script writing which still baffles scholars. These seals are dated back to 2500 B. C. Source: North Park University, Chicago, Illinois.(Image : A Harappa Seals.) This seal is a close-up of the unicorn-like animal found in Mohenjo-daro, measures 29 mm (1.14 inches) on each side and is made of heated Steatite. "Steatite is an easily carved soft stone that becomes hard after firing. On the top are four pictographs of an as yet undeciphered Indus script, one of the first writing systems in history." Image source Dept. of Archaeology and Museums, Govt. of Pakistan.(Image : A Harappa Unicorn.)[It is also to be noted that different seals show rhinos and "Unicorns" and plainly show them as being different-DD] Elasmotherium or rhinoceros One suggestion is that the unicorn is based on the extinct animal Elasmotherium, a huge Eurasian rhinoceros native to the steppes, south of the range of the woolly rhinoceros of Ice Age Europe. Elasmotherium looked little like a [very large]horse, but it had a large single horn in its forehead. It became extinct about the same time as the rest of the glacial age megafauna.[20] However, according to the Nordisk familjebok (Nordic Familybook) and science writer Willy Ley the animal may have survived long enough to be remembered in the legends of the Evenk people of Russia as a huge black bull with a single horn in the forehead. In support of this claim, it has been noted that the 13th century traveller Marco Polo claimed to have seen a unicorn in Java, but his description makes it clear to the modern reader that he actually saw a Javan Rhinoceros. Here is a quote from a Bible study site that includes most of the pertinent references about the Elasmotherium being the unicorn of the Bible: http://www.biblebaptisttemple.org/2009/03/23/unicorns-in-the-bible/ .... As a literalist, I approach the Bible with a firm reliance that what I am reading is historical fact… not merely based on history or mythologized stories. Not to say that when the Bible relates information that is meant to be taken as poetry or symbolism I twist it into some sort of weird fact starved caricature, I read the Bible as any other book is read, in the manner it was intended. Such is the case with Job, it is presented as “matter of fact” and gives us a glimpse of the past when the Spiritual World and the Physical World were in much greater contact. It also gives us a window into some of the Creation of God that is no longer extant today. Enter the unicorn. Today it is pictured as a sleek, nimble, and slender racehorse with a magnificent spiraled horn protruding from its head. But that is a far cry from the beast described in Job 39:9-12 (KJV) Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him? Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn? We get a picture of brute strength, not subtle grace. We get a picture of fierce wildness and independence, not servitude and tameness. We are a victim of our own mythology and false picture of what a unicorn is and was in history! What happens (and what happens far too frequently, especially in historical studies) is we take present conditions and sensibilities and transfer them onto the past, irrespective of the conditions and sensibilities of the time we are studying. In a nutshell, what our culture defines as “unicorn” characteristics are read into the word unicorn in Job and we then summarily toss out verses 10, 11, and 12… the actual description of what a unicorn was. In reality, there WAS a beast alive in ancient times that fit the Biblical description of unicorn. The elasmotherium was a creature of great strength and wildness and had a single horn protruding from its head. It is believed that Elasmotherium died out in prehistoric times. However, according to science writer and cryptozoologist Willy Ley, the animal may have survived long enough to be remembered in the legends of the Evenk people of Russia as a huge black bull with a single horn in the forehead. Elasmotherium sibiricum. There is also a testimony by the medieval traveller Ibn Fadlan which has been interpreted to indicate that Elasmotherium may have survived into historical times. Ibn Fadlan’s account states: There is nearby a wide steppe, and there dwells, it is told, an animal smaller than a camel, but taller than a bull. Its head is the head of a ram, and its tail is a bull’s tail. Its body is that of a mule and its hooves are like those of a bull. In the middle of its head it has a horn, thick and round, and as the horn goes higher, it narrows (to an end), until it is like a spearhead. Some of these horns grow to three or five ells, depending on the size of the animal. It thrives on the leaves of trees, which are excellent greenery. Whenever it sees a rider, it approaches and if the rider has a fast horse, the horse tries to escape by running fast, and if the beast overtakes them, it picks the rider out of the saddle with its horn, and tosses him in the air, and meets him with the point of the horn, and continues doing so until the rider dies. But it will not harm or hurt the horse in any way or manner. The locals seek it in the steppe and in the forest until they can kill it. It is done so: they climb the tall trees between which the animal passes. It requires several bowmen with poisoned arrows; and when the beast is in between them, they shoot and wound it unto its death. And indeed I have seen three big bowls shaped like Yemen seashells, that the king has, and he told me that they are made out of that animal’s horn. It certainly can be argued that the survival of Elasmotherium into historical times may be the source of the unicorn existence, as the animal’s description could be argued to fit with the Persian karkadann unicorn, the Chinese zhi unicorn, and the Biblical account in Job. Written by webmaster · Filed Under Bible Study The smaller kind of Persian unicorn is here depicted and labelled as a 'Karkadann.' This might be the creature called Shadhavar: depictions from Northern India are very similar. Actually the original unicorn of Ctesias seems to have been the same as a cryptid said to inhabit Tibet up until quite recent times, although explorers in Tibet were only told that it lived "Somewhere out there" and nobody ever showed a body or fur of such a creature: it is said that captured ones were taken to courts in Samarkand on different occasions. The creature would have had a red top and a white belly (miskakenly transcribed as a "red head and a white body") and it actually would have two horns close together, one much larger than the other, and hence looking like one cleft horn. The description is very similar to the Ki-Rin or Kirin of China and more than likely the Chinese legend is in reference to it, and artistic depictions made of it are confused attempts to illustrate it. It would be a survival of the Miocene-Pliocene small bovid ('goat-antelope') Tsaidamotherium, thought to have died out before the Ice Ages began, but the physical match is much too striking to have been accidental. Following are some reconstructions of Tsaidamotherium (I wrote an article explaining this identification to the SITU in the 1980s and I have been championing the idea ever since).

Following the reconstructions is an illustration of a Qirin. The scaly pattern often shown in such depictions may mean nothing more mysterious than the living animal has a spotted pelt.

This is my reconstruction map for the different kinds of unicorns. The orange border shows the Asiatic steppe regions, which Elasmotherium would have favoured, presuming that if it lived into the post-glacial period it would favour these areas. It would only rarely live in the actual desert regions, but in the early post-glacial the deserts were much less extensive. Later populations would have drawn into cluster areas south of Lake Baikhal and in Persia and the northern Fertile Crescent; those are areas where we find the stories about them persisting later. The red outline is the area around Tibet where I presume the Kirin version of Tsaidamotherium persisted into modern times. They would ordinarily graze on the high plateaux but they would also go up or down mountainsides as necessary. In size, colouration and habits the Kirin would be much like a chamois of Europe. The range may also have included mountainous areas more to the North of China, that part is less certain from the evidence. It was everywhere considered rare during the historical period but reports have persisted up until the middle 1800s in Tibet. I could not vouch for the continued existence of either Elasmotherium or the Tsaidamotherium - in fact, I feel pretty strongly that they have both been extinct since the beginning of the twentieth century, at least. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorn Unicorn From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Unicorns in antiquity Unicorns are not found in Greek mythology, but rather in accounts of natural history, for Greek writers of natural history were convinced of the reality of the unicorn, which they located in India, a distant and fabulous realm for them. The earliest description is from Ctesias who described them as wild asses, fleet of foot, having a horn a cubit and a half in length and colored white, red and black.[1] Aristotle must be following Ctesias when he mentions two one-horned animals, the oryx (a kind of antelope) and the so-called "Indian ass".[2][3] Strabo says that in the Caucasus there were one-horned horses with stag-like heads.[4] Pliny the Elder mentions the oryx and an Indian ox (perhaps a rhinoceros) as one-horned beasts, as well as "a very fierce animal called the monoceros which has the head of the stag, the feet of the elephant, and the tail of the boar, while the rest of the body is like that of the horse; it makes a deep lowing noise, and has a single black horn, which projects from the middle of its forehead, two cubits in length."[5] In On the Nature of Animals (Περὶ Ζῴων Ἰδιότητος, De natura animalium), Aelian, quoting Ctesias, adds that India produces also a one-horned horse (iii. 41; iv. 52),[6][7] and says (xvi. 20)[8] that the monoceros (Greek: μονόκερως) was sometimes called cartazonos (Greek: καρτάζωνος), which may be a form of the Arabic karkadann, meaning "rhinoceros". Cosmas Indicopleustes, a merchant of Alexandria, who lived in the 6th century, and made a voyage to India, and subsequently wrote works on cosmography, gives a figure of the unicorn, not, as he says, from actual sight of it, but reproduced from four figures of it in brass contained in the palace of the King of Ethiopia. He states, from report, that "it is impossible to take this ferocious beast alive; and that all its strength lies in its horn. When it finds itself pursued and in danger of capture, it throws itself from a precipice, and turns so aptly in falling, that it receives all the shock upon the horn, and so escapes safe and sound."[9][10] A one-horned animal (which may be just a bull in profile) is found on some seals from the Indus Valley Civilization.[11] Seals with such a design are thought to be a mark of high social rank.[12] Biblical An animal called the re’em (Hebrew: רְאֵם‎) is mentioned in several places in the Hebrew Bible, often as a metaphor representing strength. "The allusions to the re'em as a wild, un-tamable animal of great strength and agility, with mighty horn or horns (Job xxxix. 9–12; Ps. xxii. 21, xxix. 6; Num. xxiii. 22, xxiv. 8; Deut. xxxiii. 17; comp. Ps. xcii. 11), best fit the aurochs (Bos primigenius). This view is supported by the Assyrian rimu, which is often used as a metaphor of strength, and is depicted as a powerful, fierce, wild mountain bull with large horns."[13] This animal was often depicted in ancient Mesopotamian art in profile, with only one horn visible. The translators of the Authorized King James Version of the Bible (1611) followed the Greek Septuagint (monokeros) and the Latin Vulgate (unicornis)[14] and employed unicorn to translate re'em, providing a recognizable animal that was proverbial for its un-tamable nature. The American Standard Version translates this term "wild ox" in each case. "God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn."—Numbers 23:22 "God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn."—Numbers 24:8 "His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth."—Deuteronomy 33:17 "Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him? Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?"—Job 39:9–12 "Save me from the lion's mouth; for thou hast heard me from the horns of unicorns."—Psalms 22:21 "He maketh them [the cedars of Lebanon] also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn."—Psalms 29:6 "But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of the unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil."—Psalms 92:10 "And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with their bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness."—Isaiah 34:7 The classical Jewish understanding of bible did not identify the Re'em animal as the unicorn. Instead, the Tahash animal (Exodus 25, 26, 35, 36 and 39; Numbers 4; and Ezekiel 16:10) was thought to be a kosher unicorn with a coat of many colors that only existed in biblical times. Qilin Though the qilin (Chinese: 麒麟), a creature in Chinese mythology, is sometimes called "the Chinese unicorn", it is a hybrid animal that looks less unicorn than chimera, with the body of a deer, the head of a lion, green scales and a long forwardly-curved horn. The Japanese version (kirin) more closely resembles the Western unicorn, even though it is based on the Chinese qilin. The Quẻ Ly of Vietnamese myth, similarly sometimes mistranslated "unicorn" is a symbol of wealth and prosperity that made its first appearance during the Duong Dynasty, about 600 CE, to Emperor Duong Cao To, after a military victory which resulted in his conquest of Tây Nguyên. Middle Ages and Renaissance Medieval knowledge of the fabulous beast stemmed from biblical and ancient sources, and the creature was variously represented as a kind of wild ass, goat, or horse. The predecessor of the medieval bestiary, compiled in Late Antiquity and known as Physiologus (Φυσιολόγος), popularized an elaborate allegory in which a unicorn, trapped by a maiden (representing the Virgin Mary), stood for the Incarnation. As soon as the unicorn sees her, it lays its head on her lap and falls asleep. This became a basic emblematic tag that underlies medieval notions of the unicorn, justifying its appearance in every form of religious art. Interpretations of the unicorn myth focus on the medieval lore of beguiled lovers,[citation needed] whereas some religious writers interpret the unicorn and its death as the Passion of Christ. The myths refer to a beast with one horn that can only be tamed by a virgin; subsequently, some writers translated this into an allegory for Christ's relationship with the Virgin Mary. The unicorn also figured in courtly terms: for some 13th century French authors such as Thibaut of Champagne and Richard de Fournival, the lover is attracted to his lady as the unicorn is to the virgin. With the rise of humanism, the unicorn also acquired more orthodox secular meanings, emblematic of chaste love and faithful marriage. It plays this role in Petrarch's Triumph of Chastity. The royal throne of Denmark was made of "unicorn horns" – almost certainly narwhal tusks. The same material was used for ceremonial cups because the unicorn's horn continued to be believed to neutralize poison, following classical authors. The unicorn, tamable only by a virgin woman, was well established in medieval lore by the time Marco Polo described them as 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 have a head like a wild boar's… 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. It is clear that Marco Polo was describing a rhinoceros. In German, since the 16th century, Einhorn ("one-horn") has become a descriptor of the various species of rhinoceros. The ancient Norwegians were said to believe the narwhal to have affirmed the existence of the unicorn. The unicorn horn was believed to stem from the narwhal tooth, which grows outward and projects from its upper jaw. In popular belief, examined wittily and at length in the seventeenth century by Sir Thomas Browne in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica, unicorn horns could neutralize poisons.[15] Therefore, people who feared poisoning sometimes drank from goblets made of "unicorn horn". Alleged aphrodisiac qualities and other purported medicinal virtues also drove up the cost of "unicorn" products such as milk, hide, and offal. Unicorns were also said to be able to determine whether or not a woman was a virgin; in some tales, they could only be mounted by virgins ....... References 1.^ Ctesias (390 BC). "45". Indica (Τα Ἰνδικά). http://www.livius.org/ct-cz/ctesias/photius_indica.html. (quoted by Photius) 2.^ Aristotle (c.350 BC). "Book 3. Chapter 2.". On the Parts of Animals (Περι ζώων μορίων). trans. William Ogle. http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/parts/. 3.^ Aristotle (c.343 BC). "Book 2. Chapter 1.". History of Animals (Περί ζώων ιστορίας). trans. D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson. http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/history/. 4.^ Strabo (before 24 AD). "Book 15. Chapter 1. Section 56.". Geography. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/15A3*.html. 5.^ Pliny (77 AD). "Book 8. Chapter 31.". Natural History. trans. John Bostock. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin//ptext?lookup=Plin.+Nat.+8.31. Also Book 8. Chapter 30. and Book 11. Chapter 106. 6.^ Aelian (circa 220). "Book 3. Chapter 41.". On the Nature of Animals (Περὶ Ζῴων Ἰδιότητος, De natura animalium). http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Aelian/de_Natura_Animalium/3*.html#41. 7.^ Aelian (circa 220). "Book 4. Chapter 52.". On the Nature of Animals (Περὶ Ζῴων Ἰδιότητος, De natura animalium). http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Aelian/de_Natura_Animalium/4*.html#52. 8.^ Aelian (circa 220). "Book 16. Chapter 20.". On the Nature of Animals (Περὶ Ζῴων Ἰδιότητος, De natura animalium). http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Aelian/de_Natura_Animalium/16*.html#20. 9.^ Cosmas Indicopleustes (6th century). "Book 11. Chapter 7.". Christian Topography. http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cosmas_11_book11.htm. 10.^ Manas: History and Politics, Indus Valley. Sscnet.ucla.edu. Retrieved on 2011-03-20. 11.^ Discussion of the Indus Valley Civilization with mention of unicorn seals 12.^ Site with slide show about unicorn seal 13.^ Jewish Encyclopedia 14.^ Ps 21:22, Ps 28:6, Ps 77:69, Ps 91:11, Is 34:7. The Latin rhinoceros is employed in Nm 23:22, Nm24:8, Dt 33:17, Job 39:9–10 15.^ Browne, Thomas (1646). "Book 3. Chapter 23.". Pseudodoxia Epidemica. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/pseudodoxia/pseudo323.html. 16.^ (Ashmolean Museum) "Young woman seated in a landscape with a unicorn", Leonardo, Late 1470s 17.^ a b c Friar, Stephen (1987). A New Dictionary of Heraldry. London: Alphabooks/A & C Black. pp. 353–354. ISBN 0906670446. 18.^ Robin Meadows, "The Unicorn, the Mermaid, and the Centaur" Zoogoer, November–December 2006 19.^ "Dr Dove's Unicorn Bull". http://www.unicorngarden.com/drdove.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-20. 20.^ R. Norman Owen-Smith , "The interaction of humans, megaherbivores, and habitats in the late Pleistocene extinction" ch. 3 in Ross D. E. MacPhee, ed. Extinctions in Near Time: Causes, Contexts, and Consequences (in series Advances in Vertebrate Paleontology) 1999. Springer. ISBN 0306460920 pp. 57 ff 21.^ "Man Made Unicorns". http://www.lair2000.net/Unicorn_Dreams/Unicorns_Man_Made/unicorns_man_made.html. Retrieved 2007-01-20. 22.^ The Living Unicorn! 23.^ "Unicorn at Ocultopedia". http://www.occultopedia.com/u/unicorn.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-20. 24.^ Daston, Lorraine and Katharine Park. Wonders and the Order of Nature, 1150–1750. New York: Zone Books, 2001. ISBN 0942299914 25.^ Purchasing Power of British Pounds from 1264 to 2007 26.^ a b Falconi, Marta (2008-07-16). "Single-horned 'Unicorn' is deer found in Italy". Associated Press. http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/06/11/unicorn-deer-italy.html. Retrieved 2008-06-14. 27.^ "Single-horned 'Unicorn' deer found in Italy". http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080611/ap_on_fe_st/italy_unicorn;_ylt=AuMxc9ordeEPLXLJHlp5JQEuQE4F. Retrieved 2008-06-11. [dead link] Larger photo at Dailymail.co.uk Sources Beer, Rüdiger Robert, Unicorn: Myth and Reality (1977). (Editions: ISBN 0-88405-583-3; ISBN 0-904069-15-X; ISBN 0-442-80583-7.) Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911: "Unicorn" Gotfredsen, Lise, The Unicorn (1999). (Editions: ISBN 0-7892-0595-5; ISBN 1-86046-267-7.) Shepard, Odell. The Lore of the Unicorn. Readtext on-line! (London, Unwin and Allen, 1930) ISBN 978-1437508536 Lavers, Chris The Natural History of Unicorns (Granta, 2009) ISBN 978-1847080622 Gotfredsen, Lise The Unicorn (New York: Abbeville Press, 1999) ISBN 978-1860462672

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