The UNICORN SERIES - Part TWO

The Unicorn Series
Part Two - The Unicorn in Biblical Context

...'God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of the unicorn. Numbers xxiii. 22.

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 to the ends of the earth. Deuteronomy xxxiii. 17.

Save me from the lion's mouth; for thou hast heard me from the horns of unicorns. Psalm xxii. 21

He maketh them [the cedars of Lebanon] also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn Psalm xxix. 6.

But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of the unicorn: I shall be annointed with fresh oil Psalm xcii. 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 xxxiv. 7.

Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide in 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 xxxix. 9-12

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The fact that no one in Europe had seen a unicorn was of very little importance. No one in Europe had really seen an elephant, a tiger, a jaguar...but they believed in them with no question also.

The unicorn is often linked with tangible creatures; the bull, the calf, the deer. It is also linked with a sense of awe and of power. It is thought that this Biblical unicorn was the Re'em, the indomitable one-horned Hebrew creature. Re'em could have possibly descended from the Arabian word rim, which literally meant Aurochs; the fierce, extinct, large bullocks of time past.

It is in Alexandria that the unicorn really started to develop into a known creature, not just a literary wonder for the well-read. In the physiologus (the collection of old wives' tales which included the one about the ant-lion actually being fathered by an ant and a lion), we hear:

'[the unicorn] is a small animal, like a kid, but surprisingly fierce for his size, with one very sharp horn on his head, and no hunter is able to catch him by force. Yet there is a trick by which he is taken. Men lead a virgin to the place where he most resorts and leave her there alone. As soon as he sees this virgin he runs and lays his head on her lap. She fondles him and he falls asleep. The hunters approach and capture him and lead him to the king.'

Which led to questions such as: 'why is this animal worth such a ruse?' and 'what is the relationship between the unicorn and the virgin?' which wasn't, at that time, anything to do with purity.

The unicorn, from the Physiologus, came to represent Christianity through the following symbolism:

Horn as representing unity of father and Christ. Fiercesome nature and strength as representing that the powers of the Principalities, Thrones etc. could not come against the Messiah's will. The small stature represented Christ's humility. The virgin now comes to represent the Virgin Mary. The hunter represents the Holy Spirit, or angel Gabriel. The capture of the unicorn is the Incarnation of Christ. Leading the unicorn to the King, is the Christ-form once again finding his way back to the Holy Spirit.

There were a few other interpretations of the Physiologus, none however contributed as much to the popular view of the unicorn held today as the description above. However the unicorn was interpreted as the Devil, and the maiden as proof that virtue overcomes evil. Except in this interpretation, the Devil begins to make love to the virgin, so the maiden grasps his horn (phallic symbol anyone?) rendering the unicorn/Devil helpless, so that he can be captured by the hunter.

The virgin-capture story became popularised and sexualised over time in literature. Eventually authors wrote that the unicorn could discern virgins by sight, and should any maiden lie about her virtue, or attempt to deceive a unicorn, she would be instantly slain. Eventually it was best if the virgin was naked if the unicorn was to come (surprise surprise), and that the human virgin woman represented the 'opposite' of the unicorn, the exact polar opposite so that the unicorn was irreversibly attracted to her.

Yet the unicorn was not necessarily 'special', many people accepted that 'opposites attracted' and so came to think that the unicorn was attracted to virgins because it was only his nature. He was not special and symbolised nothing. Though important, he did not have the magical splendour of the griffin or the salamander.

As for the use of virgins, it was common to use lions and elephants and other beasts to test their 'virtue.' If they were trampled / eaten, then they weren't virgins. Later tales of the virgin and the unicorn concerned themselves with the idea of an odour of chastity which could be bought and if one annointed themselves with it, the unicorn would be deceived. This eliminated the need for the virgin, as hunters themselves could smell of sweet innocence and chastity and so deceive the unicorn.

However, if you were a 'traditionalist' and wanted to a use a virgin, no 'ordinary' virgin would do. It had to a well-bred young maiden, not too poor, nor too arrogant and rich. She had to like feminine pursuits such as picking flowers and well... I guess perhaps embroidery. They had to be beautiful, gentle and kind, which detracts from the fact that these maidens were employed for the sole purpose of deceiving the creature and the truth of its murder. The maidens were not, in essence, gentle and kind.

Sadly, the unicorn enjoyed more nobility before the virgin-capture story. The unicorn as a creature became merely a worthy prey for centuries, only to be caught by the worst of 'sportsmanship.'

Far on the edge of the world and beyond the banks of the Ganges,
Savage and lone, is a place in the realm of the King of the Hindus...
Where there is born a beast as large as a stag in stature,
Dark on the back, solid-hoofed, very fierce, and shaped like a bullock.
Mighty and black is the horn that springs from the animals' forehead,
Terrible unto his foe, a defence and a weapon of onslaught.
Often the poisoners steal to the banks of that swift-flowing river,
Fouling the waves with disease by their secret insidious poisons;
After them comes this beast and dips his horn into the water,
Cleansing the poison away and leaving the stream to flow purely
So that the forest-dwellers may drink once more by the margin.
Also men say that the beast delights in the embrace of a virgin,
Falling asleep in her arms and taking sweet rest on her bosom.
Ah! But, awakening, he finds he is bound by ropes and by shackles.
Strange is the tale, indeed, yet so, they say, he is taken,
Whether it be that the seeds of love have been sown by great Nature
Deep in his blood or for some more mysterious reason.'