Table of contents:
Video: Where did the unicorn myth come from, and why the mysterious animal turned pink
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
The unicorn is a mysterious animal. It seems to have never existed in reality, but at the same time there were quite trustworthy messages from those who happened to meet with the unicorn. Not to mention the fact that he is even mentioned in the Bible - as a very real being, at the same time appearing in fairy tales and - already now - in the works of the fantasy genre.
Who the unicorn really was
One of the ancient written texts that mentions this animal is indeed the Bible. It is about the unicorn that is discussed in several books of the Old Testament: "" (Ps. 21:22). The unicorn was the first to receive a name from Adam, he also chose to leave Eden with the exiled. Is it possible that a fantastic, fictional animal was mentioned in the Bible? The fact is that from the Hebrew language the text of the book was first translated into Greek (collection of the Septuagint). For the word "re-em" unknown translators have chosen just such a Greek term - "unicorn". Later works contained a different definition - "bison", "wild buffalo". What explains the choice of the translation option by the Greeks?
In ancient Greece, unicorns were not considered fictional or mythical creatures, they were for a man of antiquity a part of a completely material world. Another thing is that the Greeks, most likely, did not meet directly with unicorns and were forced to rely on information from third parties, which seemed to be quite trustworthy - after all, they came from civilized people and, moreover, compatriots. In the IV century BC. a certain Ctesias, who served as a doctor at the Persian court, described in his writings the animals that are found in India (in which Ctesias himself, by the way, has never been). These were supposedly creatures of the size of a horse, with elephant legs, with a white body, with a single long horn on the forehead.
It was, of course, about a rhinoceros - an animal unknown to Europeans. It is difficult to judge why the unicorn was subsequently presented in the form of a horse - perhaps because when talking about an animal the size of a horse, you involuntarily draw a horse in your imagination? Among other things, this animal is also mentioned in the essay of Julius Caesar, in his notes on the war with the Gauls. According to the famous commander, unicorns are found in European forests, but hunting them is difficult and requires special skill. With the same features, the image of the unicorn has spread to other cultures - like the description of the Indian rhinoceros distorted as a result of paraphrases.
… Or is it not a rhino?
The problem, however, is that the Indian civilization, in turn, left the ancient images of a unicorn - not at all like a rhinoceros, but quite consistent with later ideas about this mysterious animal - as a slender hoofed with a long thin - and only - horn. Such drawings are much older than the ancient Greek ones, their age is about 4 thousand years. So did unicorns really exist?
It is assumed that the explanation, again, is much more prosaic. If you depict animals "in profile", without taking into account perspective, then the two horns will look like one - the close one will cover the one that is farther from the viewer. The Egyptians created drawings according to this principle - they, in turn, depicted such "unicorns" - antelopes and other ungulates, whose horns occupied the place they should have on the animal's head, but merged into one - this is how the ancient "unicorns" were obtained.
But when studying the heritage of ancient cultures, such finds formed the concept of perception of a unicorn as an animal that looks like a horse, which has already been formed over the centuries. It is thanks to the mention in the Bible as a “wild beast” or “buffalo” that the image of the unicorn safely survived the millennium of the Middle Ages, without being forgotten and even vice versa - acquiring a completely complete established image in European culture. In some legends that told about the unicorn, he was still considered aggressive and ferocious - it seems, embodying the features of his more awkward and much less attractive prototype, as he appears, for example, in the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, written based on the results of collections by the writers of German folklore.
In general, the image of the unicorn gradually merged, oddly enough at first glance, with the figure of the Virgin Mary in Christianity. According to ancient beliefs, only an innocent girl could tame a fearful and distrustful animal - it was not for nothing that the unicorn was once dedicated to Artemis, who, however, besides being a virgin, was also responsible for hunting and for wild animals.
Unicorn in religious myths and legends
The unicorn gradually became a fashionable symbol, which was used primarily in the creation of dynastic and state emblems. In addition to the fact that this animal was endowed in absentia with such qualities as caution, a stern disposition, prudence and purity of thoughts, it is not surprising that the unicorn began to be depicted on family coats of arms. This was not welcomed by the church - the snow-white horse with a horn growing on its forehead turned out to be closely associated with Christian symbolism, primarily with the Mother of God and Jesus Christ. But with the beginning of the Renaissance, unicorns began to appear on the coats of arms and shields of eminent families, and later on the signs of entire states.
They also talked about the hunt for a unicorn - that, in particular, that you can catch it, forcing you to deceive to approach the girl, to whom this beast will only obey. You could also buy a "horn" - of course, belonging to anyone, but not a real unicorn. It is noteworthy that Marco Polo, who returned from his wanderings in Asia in the 13th century, already described in detail the real "unicorn" - the rhinoceros, but the already established romantic image has not disappeared from culture and art.
Back in the 19th century, many Europeans believed that extremely cautious unicorns lived in their forests, and therefore they did not meet them. And the next century, and after them the 21st, did not affect the popularity of these animals, on the contrary: the unicorn became an almost indispensable character in stories with magical creatures, including the Harry Potter epic, which united most European legends about magical creatures.
The twentieth century even expanded the "habitat" of unicorns, in 1990 a parody religion arose in which the Invisible Pink Unicorn was worshiped, which, according to the founders of the movement, personified the essence of most confessions, where it is required to believe in mutually exclusive, paradoxical things, like the color of a unicorn - pink - and his invisibility. This religion has become a refuge primarily for atheists.
Read also: Biblical events that cannot be denied.
Recommended:
Why did the daughter of director Gaidai and actress Grebeshkova refuse to follow in the footsteps of her parents, and how her life turned out
Children of famous personalities always have a hard time, because those around them often evaluate not their personal qualities and talents, but their compliance with the status of the successor of the dynasty. But many of them manage to achieve success in the same field as their parents. Oksana Gaidai, the daughter of the genius director Leonid Gaidai and his wife, the talented actress Nina Grebeshkova, declared as a child that she did not want to get a creative profession, although she undoubtedly had an acting gift. How was her fate and did not reap
Why did the Germans want to kidnap Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill, and why they did not succeed
The plan to kidnap the leaders of the "Big Three" states could be called an adventure, if not for the punctuality and scale with which the Germans were preparing for the operation. One thing the German leaders did not take into account before the "Long Leap" - the activity and awareness of Soviet intelligence, the coherence and scale of their secret, but effective work. Thanks to the timely detention of SS saboteurs and the arrests of German agents, the USSR special services managed to disrupt the operation already at the first stage it was completed
The Germans are the leaders of the Russian Slavophiles, or where did the name Svetlana and the myth of Old Russian Sanskrit come from?
As you know, in Russia in the nineteenth century there were analogues of modern globalists and anti-globalists: Westernizers and Slavophiles. Because of the name of the movements, some think that only ethnically pure Slavs were taken as Slavophiles, but many of them were in fact Germans. Moreover, some Russian Germans can be called among the leaders and ideologists of the Slavophiles
"To take revenge on the unreasonable Khazars": Where did the most mysterious people of Ancient Russia come from and where did they disappear
Pushkin's lines "How the prophetic Oleg is now going to take revenge on the unreasonable Khazars …" was taught at school, perhaps, by everyone. Why and how long the Russian princes fought with the Khazars, few know. Although the very image of the sworn enemy of Russia was firmly entrenched in the Khazars - as well as many legends about their Jewish origin, the "Khazar yoke" over the Russian lands and the modern heirs of the disappeared people
Movie heroes and their prototypes: the Hollywood myth about cowboys turned out to be far from reality
Dashing heroes from American westerns, firing from two hands from Colts, are nothing more than fiction, another Hollywood myth that largely distorts reality. In fact, in the daily life of cowboys there was much less heroism, romance and firing from revolvers. What exactly were the dashing guys of the Wild West who became the symbols of American culture?