Thanks to the fantasy genre so popular nowadays, many of its fans present unicorns as beautiful good-natured magical horses of white and silver color with a long thick mane and a small twisted horn in their forehead. However, according to ancient legends, the unicorn is not such a "white and fluffy" creature, which even today raises many questions from contemporaries, the main one of which is: maybe it is not a fictional animal at all?
Almost every nation has preserved many legends and myths about unicorns, where the image of this creature, to put it mildly, is far from the magical handsome man sung by the authors of modern fantasy.
In ancient Persia, people believed that the unicorn is a huge three-legged beast with six eyes and nine mouths, which stands in the middle of the ocean, dipping its massive golden horn into the water, thereby protecting the sea moisture from all kinds of pollution.
The ancient Jews believed that an adult unicorn could compete with the size of a mountain, on the slope of which an entire flock of sheep could be accommodated. This beast had a quarrelsome character, and he managed to start a quarrel with other animals even on board Noah's ark, for which he was driven away by the owner shortly before the flood, after which he escaped on his own.
But the Chinese relative of these creatures - tsilin - on the contrary, had a meek and gentle disposition, although he could not boast of an excellent appearance. It was believed that he was small in stature, had a horse's body and an oxtail, his fur was dyed in five different colors, the horn resembled a soft, fleshy growth in the middle of his forehead. This unicorn appeared on earth only before the birth of a just ruler or a great sage, and a meeting with him promised great luck to a person.
According to Slavic mythology, the eternal wanderer rushed across the heavens - the mighty and invincible beast Indrik, a huge honey-colored horse with a long horn between the ears. Having lived to 532 years, Indrik fled to the sea to throw his horn into the water, so that it turned into a thick white worm, from the flesh of which a young animal was then born. The old unicorn, having lost its horn, quickly weakened and soon died.
Book testimonies of unicorns
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I must say that not only myths, but also scientific works of scientists of past years have left a lot of interesting information about unicorns. So, the ancient Greek historian Ctesias described in detail the amazing animals that lived in India. According to his records, the adult unicorn was slightly larger than a horse and resembled its appearance. Although the suit had an unusual white body and a maroon head. Its horn - about one and a half meters long - was painted in black, white and red and possessed magical powers. Ordinary water, poured into a bowl made from this horn, turned into a miraculous elixir capable of curing any disease. However, hunting a unicorn was not an easy task. He was distinguished by tirelessness and could easily get away from pursuers. And getting ambushed by hunters, he sold his life dearly,piercing their tormentors and their horses with a sharp horn and hammering with hooves.
Herodotus, Aristotle and Pliny the Elder have repeatedly written about the wonderful beast with a horn in its forehead in scientific treatises, and even the great Julius Caesar did not avoid meeting the unicorn. In his notes, the emperor reported that in the forests of Germany he saw an animal that looked like a deer, with a long twisted horn in its forehead, the top of which is divided into processes and looks like a tree branch.
Leonardo da Vinci also did not doubt the existence of unicorns and left several drawings of this animal, made according to the descriptions of travelers - his contemporaries.
Unicorn horn is the best cure for all diseases
Until the 19th century, the unicorn was considered an enviable prey for hunters. And all because his horn was a panacea for all diseases, a powerful remedy for corruption and witchcraft, as well as a universal antidote. In the Middle Ages, an original way of capturing him was even invented, since by classical methods
it was impossible to get a unicorn. Easily eluding the most dashing horses and dogs, the bearer of the valuable horn obediently went out of the thicket of the forest to the virgin and went to sleep on her lap, as a result of which he was captured by valiant hunters. It was believed that the healing power of the frontal outgrowth of an animal is given by a wonderful ruby, resting at its base, and therefore the horns of elderly unicorns, whose stone has accumulated more magical energy, were most valued.
In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, "bone" medicine filled pharmacies, and almost all noble people had a bowl or goblet in the household, made from the main decoration of the legendary beast and designed to protect its owner from poison. For a long time, the unicorn was a kind of quality mark for pharmacies selling the best medicines.
Naturally, the popularity of the coveted horn was enjoyed by numerous scammers who sold under the guise of it the bones of narwhal whales, rhinos and even mammoths. Fighting such quackery, medical treatises of the past centuries devoted whole pages to advice on how to recognize a fake. It turns out that a sweet smell emanated from a genuine horn when heated, and even the smallest piece of it, dipped in water, generated small bubbles in it, as if boiling. However, the following test revealed 100 percent fake: a real unicorn horn, brought to a poisonous spider or scorpion, immediately tore them into small pieces.
Unicorn emblem for Russia
Few people know that in the 15-16th centuries unicorns had every chance to replace the two-headed eagle on the coat of arms of Russia. Even under Ivan III, he became a symbol of the united Russian principalities, but gained great popularity under Ivan the Terrible. According to the memoirs of his contemporaries, the tsar was so fascinated by these creatures that he even bought a "unicorn" staff from English merchants, paying for the purchase a fabulous sum for those times - 70 thousand rubles. The staff, according to the sellers, possessed magical power, so the tsar went out with it "to the people" only at solemn ceremonies, and the rest of the time he used it for divination and fortune-telling.
By order of the king, the image of the unicorn adorned the small state seal, and also began to be considered the personal coat of arms of the monarch. In 1577, a horned horse even appeared on cannon carriages. However, after the death of Ivan Vasilyevich, his heirs somehow quickly forgot about the wonderful animal, and the magic staff mysteriously disappeared from the royal treasury.
Evidence of existence
Unlike other mythological animals, the unicorn left some evidence of its existence in real history. So, in 1663, the skeleton of this animal was found in a cave in the Hertz mountain range in Germany. True, most of its bones were broken, but the skull of an animal with a horn in its forehead, reaching a length of almost two meters, is quite well preserved. Quite a few curious people came to see the unusual find, who were eager not only to contemplate the remains of a wonderful creature, but also to take a souvenir with them. And therefore, despite the serious protection, after a few years, little remained of the wonderful skeleton.
Later, near the village of Einhornhole, another similar find was made, which was carefully studied by the famous naturalist Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. In 1991, near the Hertz massif, the Austrian scientist Antal Festetiks, while filming a documentary about the local nature, saw a galloping unicorn. Later, the scientist recalled that he saw the animal quite well, but it swept so quickly and quickly disappeared into the forest, so it was not possible to take a single photograph of it.
And more recently, in 2008, in an Italian reserve near the city of Prato, a roe deer with one horn in the middle of its forehead was born, and this mutation once again proved to mankind that there is some truth in numerous legends.
Unicorn legends
If you believe old legends, people still have a good chance of meeting unicorns. Thus, the British and Irish believe that these beautiful animals are in the service of the fairy queen. She sends these animals to earth when the life of worthy people ends, so that the unicorns escorted the elect to her underworld. It was the silvery unicorns who came for the famous Scottish bard Thomas Lermont and took the poet with them, about which there was a lot of evidence from his fellow tribesmen.
In addition, there is a legend that once every 100 years, God sends a snow-white beast with a horn in his forehead to people, so that he fulfills any desire of one randomly selected person. By the nature of this request, the Almighty judges what level of spiritual development humanity has reached and what it deserves in the future - troubles or prosperity