The Fierce Mythical Unicorn Travelled the World and Through Cultures, Killing and Healing

Top image: The magical unicorn, legend around the world. Source: AbrahamWilliams/CC BY-SA 2.0 

Legend speaks of a powerful creature, a wild beast that is both an unpredictable, deadly foe and a gentle and innocent spirit. The unicorn, a creature with a single, spiraling horn centered on its forehead has become one of the most popular and enduring of mythological creatures. Like dragons, they are unique legendary figures with an image that is instantly recognizable all over the globe, with tales reaching back through ancient epochs. 

Stemming from text mistranslations and misunderstood travelers’ tales, stories of the elusive creatures cemented their place in ancient record and oral traditions, demonstrating a long and rich history in legend since antiquity, and which continues today in modern popular culture. The modern mythical beast is now generally described as a perfect white steed with a tapering horn projecting from its forehead. It is said to be beautiful, pure, and magical, and visits or defends young girls specifically. 

At one time, however, the unicorn was not the lovely creature we know today. Rugged, beastly, four-legged animals with a dangerous horn and strange powers were described by various ancient writers in accounts of natural history. 

Travelers’ Tales and Marvelous Accounts 

Original accounts of the creature were not mythical or religious creations, but were instead found in ancient natural history texts by Greek and Roman writers. Historians, natural scientists, and physicians believed the unicorn was a real animal which lived in the largely mysterious ancient India, based on traveler accounts from the region. 

Greek historian Ctesias in the fifth century first wrote in his book Indika, (“On India”), that unicorns were wild asses or onager—small equine animals which still exist today. But he held they were colored white, red or black, and they had a horn about 28 inches (71 centimeters) long. 

It’s believed other authors drew from Ctesias’ work as fact, and added further details. Aristotle wrote about a one-horned animal called the oryx (a type of two-horned antelope,) and the “Indian ass”. Similarly, Strabo recorded that there were one-horned horses in the Caucasus. 

Pliny the Elder mentioned the oryx, and an “Indian ox”, and described them as one-horned beasts. He wrote about, “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 [900 mm, 35 inches] in length.” 

The monoceres, from the Greek accounts, depicted in the 12th or early 13th century Ashmole Bestiary. (Public Domain) 

It’s now believed these accounts were likely describing the rhinoceros, but word of such strange and marvellous creatures spread across the continents, and through the centuries, morphing and shifting into various beliefs and stories.