Editing Unicorn (section)

== History ==
[[File:Stamp seal and modern impression- unicorn and incense burner (?) MET DP23101 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Indus stamp seal and modern impression; unicorn and incense burner or manger, 2600–1900 BC]]

===Indus Valley civilization===
A creature with a single horn, conventionally called a unicorn, is the most common image on the [[soapstone]] stamp seals of the [[Bronze Age]] [[Indus Valley Civilisation|Indus Valley civilization]] ("IVC"), from the centuries around 2000 BC. It has a body more like a cow than a horse, and a curved horn that goes forward, then up at the tip.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} The mysterious feature depicted coming down from the front of the back is usually shown; it may represent a harness or other covering. Typically, the unicorn faces a vertical object with at least two stages; this is variously described as a "ritual offering stand", an [[incense burner]], or a manger. The animal is always in profile on [[Indus seal]]s, but the theory that it represents animals with two horns, one hiding the other, is disproved by a (much smaller) number of small [[terracotta]] unicorns, probably toys, and the profile depictions of bulls, where both horns are clearly shown. It is thought that the unicorn was the symbol of a powerful "clan or merchant community", but may also have had some religious significance.

In [[South Asia]], the unicorn is only seen during the IVC period, and disappeared in South Asian art after this. [[Jonathan Mark Kenoyer]] stated the IVC "unicorn" has no "direct connection" with later unicorn motifs observed in other parts of the world; nonetheless, it remains possible that the IVC unicorn had contributed to later myths of fantastical one-horned creatures in [[West Asia]].<ref>[[Jonathan Mark Kenoyer|Kenoyer, J.M.]], catalogue entry in Aruz, Joan (ed), ''Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus'', p. 404 (quoted) and 390 (terracotta), 2003, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), [https://books.google.com/books?id=8l9X_3rHFdEC google books]; [https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/324062 Metropolitan Museum], "Stamp seal and modern impression: unicorn and incense burner (?)" ca. 2600–1900 B.C.", for harness. "Iconography of the Indus Unicorn: Origins and Legacy", in ''Connections and Complexity:New Approaches to the Archaeology of South Asia'', 2013, Left Coast Press, {{ISBN|9781598746860}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ddRmDAAAQBAJ&dq=Indus+unicorn&pg=PA120 Google Books]</ref>

=== Classical antiquity ===
Unicorns are not found in [[Greek mythology]], but rather in the accounts of [[natural history]], for Greek writers of natural history were convinced of the reality of unicorns, which they believed lived in India, a distant and fabulous realm for them. The earliest description is from [[Ctesias]], who in his book ''[[Indica (Ctesias)|Indika]]'' ("On [[India]]") described them as [[Onager|wild ass]]es, fleet of foot, having a horn a [[cubit]] and a half ({{Convert|700|mm|in|disp = comma|abbr = in}}) in length, and colored white, red and black.<ref>{{cite book
|last = Ctesias
|orig-date=390 BC
|author-link = Ctesias
|title = Indica (Τα Ἰνδικά)
|chapter = 45
|url = https://www.livius.org/ct-cz/ctesias/photius_indica.html
|access-date = 2020-03-26
|archive-date = 2012-07-16
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120716183321/http://www.livius.org/ct-cz/ctesias/photius_indica.html
|url-status = dead
}} (quoted by [[Photios I of Constantinople|Photius]])</ref> Unicorn meat was said to be too bitter to eat.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Bhairav|first1=J. Furcifer|title=Ghosts, Monsters, and Demons of India|last2=Khanna|first2=Rakesh|publisher=Blaft Publications Pvt. Ltd.|year=2021|isbn=9789380636467|location=India|pages=395|language=English}}</ref>

[[File:Unicorn in Apadana, Shush, Iran--2017-10.jpg|thumb|Winged bull, perhaps perceived as a unicorn, in [[Apadana]], [[Susa]], Iran]]
Ctesias got his information while living in [[Persian Empire|Persia]]. Unicorns or, more likely, winged bulls, appear in [[relief]]s at the ancient Persian capital of [[Persepolis]] in Iran.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Unicorns and Other Magical Creatures |last=Hamilton |first=John |publisher=ABDO Publishing Company |year=2010 |isbn=978-1617842818}}</ref> [[Aristotle]] must be following Ctesias when he mentions two one-horned animals, the [[oryx]] (a kind of [[antelope]]) and the so-called "Indian ass" ({{lang|grc|ἰνδικὸς ὄνος}}).<ref>{{cite book |last=Aristotle
 |author-link  = Aristotle
 |others      = trans. William Ogle
 |title       = On the Parts of Animals (Περι ζώων μορίων)
 |chapter     = Book 3. Chapter 2.
 |url         = http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/parts/
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20080501140737/http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/parts/
 |archive-date = 2008-05-01
}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Aristotle
 |author-link  = Aristotle
 |others      = trans. [[D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson]]
 |title       = History of Animals (Περί ζώων ιστορίας)
 |chapter     = Book 2. Chapter 1.
 |url         = http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/history/
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20070630051759/http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/history/
 |archive-date = 2007-06-30
}}</ref> [[Antigonus of Carystus]] also wrote about the one-horned "Indian ass".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sites.google.com/site/paradoxography/texts/antigonus|title=Paradoxography - Antigonus|website=sites.google.com}}</ref> [[Strabo]] says that in the [[Caucasus]] there were one-horned horses with stag-like heads.<ref>{{cite book |last=Strabo
|author-link = Strabo
|title = Geography
|chapter = Book 15. Chapter 1. Section 56.
|url = https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/15A3*.html }}</ref> [[Pliny the Elder]] mentions the oryx and an Indian [[ox]] (perhaps a [[Indian rhinoceros|greater one-horned rhinoceros]]) as one-horned beasts, as well as "a very fierce animal called the monoceros which has the head of the [[Deer|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 [{{Convert|900|mm|in|disp = comma|abbr = in}}] in length."<ref>{{cite book |last=Pliny
 |author-link = Pliny the Elder
 |others     = trans. John Bostock
 |title      = Natural History
 |chapter    = Book 8, Chapter 31
 |url        = https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D8%3Achapter%3D31
}} Also [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D8%3Achapter%3D30 Book 8, Chapter 30], and [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D11%3Achapter%3D106 Book 11, Chapter 106].</ref> In ''On the Nature of Animals'' ({{lang|grc|Περὶ Ζῴων Ἰδιότητος}}, {{lang|la|De natura animalium}}), [[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]], quoting Ctesias, adds that India produces also a one-horned horse (iii. 41; iv. 52),<ref>{{cite book |last=Aelian|author-link = Claudius Aelianus |others=trans. A.F.Scholfield |title=On the Nature of Animals (Περὶ Ζῴων Ἰδιότητος, De natura animalium) |year=220 |orig-year=circa |chapter=Book 3. Chapter 41. |url=http://www.attalus.org/translate/animals3.html#41}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Aelian|author-link = Claudius Aelianus |others=trans. A.F.Scholfield |title=On the Nature of Animals (Περὶ Ζῴων Ἰδιότητος, De natura animalium) |year=220 |orig-year=circa |chapter=Book 4. Chapter 52. |url=http://www.attalus.org/translate/animals4.html#52}}</ref> and says (xvi. 20)<ref>{{cite book |last=Aelian|author-link = Claudius Aelianus |others=trans. A.F.Scholfield |title=On the Nature of Animals (Περὶ Ζῴων Ἰδιότητος, De natura animalium) |year=220 |orig-year=circa |chapter=Book 16. Chapter 20. |url=http://www.attalus.org/translate/animals16.html#20}}</ref> that the {{transliteration|grc|[[Monoceros (mythology)|monoceros]]}} ({{lang|grc|μονόκερως}}) was sometimes called {{transliteration|grc|cartazonos}} ({{lang|grc|καρτάζωνος}}), which may be a form of the Arabic {{transliteration|ar|[[karkadann]]}}, meaning '[[rhinoceros]]'.

[[Cosmas Indicopleustes]], a 6th-century Greek traveler who journeyed to India and the [[Kingdom of Aksum]], gives a description of a unicorn based on four bronze figures he saw in the four-towered palace of the King of [[Ethiopia]]. He states, from report: <blockquote>They speak of him as a terrible beast and quite invincible and that all its strength lies in its horn. When he finds himself pursued by many hunters and on the point of being caught, he springs up to the top of some precipice whence he throws himself down and in the descent turns a somersault so that the horn sustains all the shock of the fall, and he escapes unhurt.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cosmas Indicopleustes
|author-link = Cosmas Indicopleustes
|title = Christian Topography
|chapter = Book 11. Chapter 7.
|url = http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cosmas_11_book11.htm}}</ref><ref>[https://archive.today/20120805164810/http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Ancient/Indus2.html Manas: History and Politics, Indus Valley]. Sscnet.ucla.edu. Retrieved on 2011-03-20.</ref></blockquote>

=== Middle Ages and Renaissance ===
[[File:Wildweibchen mit Einhorn.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Wild man|Wild woman]] with unicorn,'' tapestry, {{Circa|1500–1510}} ([[Basel Historical Museum]])]]
[[File:Unicorn annunciation.jpg|thumb|''Hunt of the Unicorn [[Annunciation]]'' (ca. 1500) from a Netherlandish [[Book of hours|Book of Hours]]]]
[[File:Annunciation with the Unicorn and Adoration of the Magi.jpg|thumb|''Annunciation with the Unicorn'' and ''[[Adoration of the Magi]]'' from the [[Buhl Altarpiece]], ca. 1495]]

[[Middle Ages|Medieval]] knowledge of unicorns stemmed from [[Re'em|biblical]] and ancient sources, and unicorns were variously represented as a kind of [[Onager|wild ass]], [[goat]], or [[horse]].

Several European medieval travelers claimed to have seen unicorns in their travels outside of Europe. For example [[Felix Fabri]] claimed to have seen a unicorn in [[Sinai Peninsula|Sinai]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=נאור |first=עמית |date=2019-12-10 |title=Unicorns in the Holy Land? |url=https://blog.nli.org.il/en/hoi_unicorns/ |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=The Librarians |language=en-US}}</ref>

The predecessor of the medieval [[bestiary]], compiled in [[Late Antiquity]] and known as {{transliteration|grc|[[Physiologus]]}} ({{lang|grc|Φυσιολόγος}}), popularized an elaborate [[allegory]] in which a unicorn, trapped by a maiden (representing the [[Mary (mother of Jesus)|Virgin Mary]]), stood for the [[Incarnation]]. As soon as the unicorn sees her, it lays its head on her lap and falls asleep.{{r|Hall1983|p=160}} This became a basic emblematic tag that underlies medieval notions of the unicorn, justifying its appearance in both secular and [[Sacred art|religious art]]. The unicorn is often shown hunted, raising parallels both with vulnerable virgins and sometimes the [[Passion (Christianity)|Passion of Christ]]. The myths refer to a beast with one horn that can only be tamed by a [[Virginity|virgin]]; subsequently, some writers translated this into an allegory for Christ's relationship with the Virgin Mary.

The unicorn also figured in [[courtly love|courtly terms]]: for some 13th-century [[France|French]] authors such as [[Theobald I of Navarre|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 [[Renaissance humanism|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'', and on the reverse of [[Piero della Francesca]]'s portrait of Battista Strozzi, paired with that of her husband [[Federico da Montefeltro]] (painted {{circa}} 1472–74), Bianca's [[triumphal car]] is drawn by a pair of unicorns.<ref>Marilyn Aronberg Lavin, 2002. ''Piero della Francesca'', pp. 260–265.</ref>

However, when the unicorn appears in the medieval legend of ''[[Barlaam and Josaphat]]'', ultimately derived from the life of the [[Buddha]], it represents death, as the ''[[Golden Legend]]'' explains.{{r|Hall1983|p=184}} Unicorns in religious art largely disappeared after they were condemned by [[Molanus]] after the [[Council of Trent]].{{r|Hall1983|p=305}}

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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brooks |first1=Noah |title=The Story of Marco Polo |url=https://archive.org/details/storyofmarcopolo00broouoft |date=1898 |publisher=Palala Press (originally The Century Co.) |isbn=978-1341338465 |page=[https://archive.org/details/storyofmarcopolo00broouoft/page/221 221] |edition=2015 reprint}}</ref>

==== Alicorn ====
{{Main article|Unicorn horn}}
The horn itself and the substance it was made of was called '''alicorn''', and it was believed that the horn holds magical and medicinal properties. The [[Danish people|Danish]] physician [[Ole Worm]] determined in 1638 that the alleged alicorns were the tusks of narwhals.<ref>{{cite book|title=Mythical creatures|author=Linda S Godfrey|publisher=Chelsea House Publishers|year=2009|page=28|isbn=978-0-7910-9394-8}}</ref> Such beliefs were examined wittily and at length in 1646 by Sir [[Thomas Browne]] in his ''[[Pseudodoxia Epidemica]]''.<ref>{{cite book
|last =Browne
|first =Thomas
|author-link = Thomas Browne
|title = Pseudodoxia Epidemica
|year =1646
|chapter = Book 3. Chapter 23.
|url = http://penelope.uchicago.edu/pseudodoxia/pseudo323.html}}</ref>

False alicorn powder, made from the tusks of [[narwhal]]s or horns of various animals, was sold in Europe for medicinal purposes as late as 1741.<ref>{{cite book|title=Exotic Zoology|url=https://archive.org/details/exoticzoologyill0000leyw|url-access=registration|author=Willy Ley|year=1962|publisher=Viking Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/exoticzoologyill0000leyw/page/20 20–22]|oclc=4049353}}</ref> The alicorn was thought to cure many diseases and have the ability to detect poisons, and many physicians would make "cures" and sell them. Cups were made from alicorn for kings and given as a gift; these were usually made of [[ivory]] or [[walrus]] ivory. Entire horns were very precious in the Middle Ages and were often really the tusks of narwhals.<ref>{{cite book|author=Shepard, Odell|title=The Lore of the Unicorn|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/lou/index.htm|publisher=London, Unwin and Allen|year=1930|isbn=978-1-4375-0853-6}}</ref>