Unicorns Essay Example For Students

Unicorns Essay In ancient Greek and Roman mythology, a mystical creature known as the unicornmade many appearances. As described throughout much of literature, the unicornis reputed to look somewhat like a white horse, although it has a long, twistedhorn protruding from its forehead.1 The earliest description of the unicorn wasby Ctesias (400 BC) (The New Book of Knowledge, Vol. U-V 19: 391). Unicorns havecloven hooves that are somewhat yellow in color; some are said to have alion-like tail. Male unicorns can be distinguished from their femalecounterparts mainly in part of the goat-like beard beneath the chin. Also, thefemales are more elegant and have a slimmer muscle frame. The typical Europeanunicorn has a coat of hair that is pure white, and has eyes that are either deepsea blue or fiery pink. Long and silky strands of white hair hand down from itsmane and forelock. In his book, The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle describes thismythological creature as looking nothing like a horned horse smaller and cloven-hoofed (1). In his book, Beagles unicorn was thecolor of sea foam when it was young; as it aged, its color changedto the color of snow falling on a moonlit night (1). A unicornshorn is white, silver, or golden in color, is about two to three feet in length,and is said to have special healing powers. Throughout time, there have beenmany varied descriptions of the unicorn. In Asia, for example, mention of theanimal dates back as far as 26 century BC.1 The animal described is far moredifferent than the European unicorn. Rather than looking like a horse, the Asianunicorn, known as the ki-lin, appears more like a dragon, although it hascloved hooves.1 The ki-lins body was made predominately of shimmery fishscales that shone in every color of the rainbow, and its horn was also thoughtto contain magical healing powers.1 The ki-lin is reported to have wanderedthrough the palace of the emperor Huang-ti in 2697 BC, and was honored as theking of all the land animals.1 Of the two, th e European is the more widely knownunicorn, and thus, more information is readily available on that type ofunicorn. In Beagles book, he states that it is their nature to live alonein one place: usually a forest (1). As they are vain creatures, theyprefer to live in solitary places where there is a shallow pool of water nearbywere they can see themselves clearly (Beagle, 1). They normally dwell only intemperate woodlands, away from human activity. They are herbivorous creatures,living mainly off of tender leaves of the forest and its grasses. Althoughunicorns are immortal, they do have enemies and can be killed. Its enemiesinclude the harpy, dragon, and chimera (Beagle, 95). Not much is known about theunicorns reproductive habits, only that it rarely ever mates (Beagle, 1). However, it is believed that when they do, it is for life. As the unicorns hornwas reputed to have mystical healing powers, unicorn hunts were popularthroughout the Middle Ages. Since baby unicorns were almost non-existent, if onecould catch a baby, he was even more richly rewarded. The unicorns horn wasthought to be a healing source. It was claimed to cure many diseases and wardoff many others, such as epilepsy and different stomach illnesses. It was alsobelieved to a neutralizer against poison.3 The horn was continuously soughtafter to be given to apothecaries; they would grind up the horn to make a poisonneutralizing powder. Also, the horn was said to bleed if poison was brought nearit.3 For these reasons, over 40,000 gold pieces were offered for the horn of aunicorn (which almost always turned out to be the horn of the narwhal, orunicorn of the sea). Although it was a healer of wounds, the unicornwas a ruthless, savage fighter when cornered. She had killed dragons withit , and he aled a king whose poisoned wound would not close(Beagle, 1). Beagle clearly shows that the unicorns horn was its means ofprotection, as well as its healing strength. He clearly emphasizes the extremechange in the unicorns temperate, going from killer to healer. In ancient Greekand Roman myths, unicorns were an emblem of purity. As such, they were placedamong virgin saints whenever they were mentioned in a myth.2 In medieval societyas well, the unicorn was a symbol of purity and innocence. It was fabled that aunicorn would only allow an untouched person of pure heart to touchit. From this came the tradition a princess bride-to-be would have to go throughin order to marry. Before a prince and a princess could be married, the princesswould have to go into the forest in search of a unicorn. The princess would havea bridle of gold waiting, and would call softly to the unicorn to come and layits head on her lap (Beagle, 73). In most instances, the princess would waituntil a good amount of time had passed and would then go back to tell them thatshe had satisfied the tradition (Beagle, 73-74). This tradition had come aboutmainly to prove that the young girl about to be married was still pure anduntouched. The unicorn was also revered in society as a symbol of honesty.3 Inthe Middle Ages, many upper-class family crests contained an image of theunicorn for this reason. The unicorns counterpart was the lion, as they wereboth considered king of all animals.3 In many cases, both the unicorn and lionwere placed on the crests as symbols of honesty, purity, and strength. In time,the unicorn came to be seen as an emblem of the spring season, and the lionstood for summer.3 As the unicorn was a symbol of chastity and purity, it wasclaimed that it could only be captured by a virgins touch.3 Because of this, avirgin was almost always included in the unicorn hunts that were organized. Macbeth - The Breaking Ball of Clay EssayBibliographyUnicorns. Http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/1272/unicorn.html. March 11, 2000. Unicorn Myths and Legends. Http://members.tripod.com/%7Ewaterdragon/origins.html. March 11, 2000. Origins of the Unicorn. Http://stud-www.uni-marbug.de/~Vigier/unicorn.html. March 14, 2000 Beagle, Peter S. The Last Unicorn. New York: Penguin Publishing,1991 Unicorns. The New Book of Knowledge, Volume U-V 19. GrolierIncorporated, 1982.