The UNICORN SERIES - Part ONE

The Unicorn Series
Part One - The Unicorn's Appearance in Literature

...'there are in India...certain wild asses which are as large as horses, and larger. Their bodies are white, their heads dark red, and their eyes dark blue. They have a horn on their forehead which is about a foot and a half in length. The dust fild from this horn is administered in a potion as a protection against deadly drugs. The base of this horn, fo some two-hands'-breadth above the brow, is pure white; the upper part is sharp and of a vivid crimson; and the remainder, or middle portion, is black.

...Those who drink out of these horns, made into drinking vessels, are not subject they say to convulsions or to the holy disease (epilepsy). Indeed, they are immune even to poions if, either before or after swallowing such, they drink wine, water or anything else from these beakers.

Other asses, both the tame and the wild, and in fact all animals with solid hoofs, are without the ankle-bone and have no gall in the liver, but these have both the ankle-bone and the gall. This ankle-bone, the most beautiful I have ever seen, is like that of an ox in general appearance and in size, but it is as heavy as lead and its colour is that of cinnabar through and through. The animal is exceedingly swift and powerful, so that no creature, neither the horse nor any other, can overtake it.'

Ctesias, 4th century BC.

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The above account is the first generally accepted account of the existence of unicorns. It is thought to represent (if dissatisfactorily) the Indian rhinocerous. Yet Ctesias' use of the word 'wild ass' leads us to believe otherwise - as after all - Ctesias was familiar with asses and would not have confused them with a rhinocerous.

At the time of this account, reports of a Tibetan 'unicorn' were becoming widespread. Documents from the time of Genghis Khan contained reports of a mythological creature which describe it as a 'long and fleet creature' like a gazelle, with a perfectly straight horn, the colour of deer.

There are two other significant unicorn references within ancient literature. Poet Oppian mentions Boeotian oxen has being single horned. The other reference comes from Julius Caesar himself who said that in the Hercynian Forest, a stag shaped beast with one horn there lived.

Aristotle was one of the many who believed in the existence of the unicorn, as were many other philosophers. Aelian was one of these, who between him and Ctesias, mustered up seven different 'unicorns.' One of these was the distinct Cartazon. An animal 'as large as a full-grown horse, it has a mane, tawny hair, feet like those of the elephant, and the tail of a goat. It is exceedingly swift of foot. Between its brows there stands a single black horn, not smooth but with certain natural rings, and tapering to a very sharp point. Of all animals, this one has the most dissonant voice.'

The Cartazon was considered exceptionally gentle towards other species, but would fight its own kind. They were thought to have lived in mountains in India inaccessible to man. No mature Cartazon had ever been captured. Cartazon comes from the Sanskrit - Kartajan, which means 'lord of the desert.'

Pliny mentions the unicorn in several passages (Monocerologia, 1676). 'The Orsaean Indians hunt an exceedingly wild beast called the monoceros, which has a stag's head, elephant's feet, and a boar's tail, the rest of its body being like that of a horse. It makes a deep lowing noise, and one black horn two cubits long projects from the middle of its forehead. This animal cannot be taken alive.'

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The unicorn, for a long time, did not enjoy a positive reputation. It was announced by the philosopher Solinus to be 'the most cruellest of creatures, a monster with a terrible bellow. His horn, of four feet, so sharp to pierce the toughest of flesh.'

The unicorn appeared only to live in literature, including the Bible (as seen in the next part). Many did not believe in its existence. It was - most of the time - an unromanticised monster, brutal and violent, terrible and beautiful.