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A unicorn is a mythical animal described since ancient times as a beast with a long, pointed, spiral horn on its forehead. Strabo, Pliny the Younger and Claudius Aelianus. The Bible also describes an animal, the re'em (probably a wild bull or aurochs), which has been incorrectly rendered by some translations as 'unicorn'. In European folk culture, the unicorn was often depicted as a white horse or goat-like animal with a long horn and cleaved hooves (sometimes with a goatee). In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, it was usually characterized as a very wild forest animal, symbolizing purity and grace, that could only be captured by a virgin. The horn could purify poisoned water and cure diseases. In these centuries, a narwhal's tooth (a type of whale) was sometimes sold as a unicorn's horn. The old Indian myth about the hermit Gazellenhoorn tells of Rsyasrnga (or Ekasrnga, literally 'unicorn'). This Rsyasrnga is the son of a goddess in the shape of a gazelle, and therefore has a horn on his head. He was taken to the palace by an attractive courtesan to end a period of drought. In 398 BC. the unicorn was described in quite detail by the Greek physician and historian Ctesias, who heard about it at the court of the Persian king in stories of travelers from India. The Indian wild donkeys, Ctesias told Indika, were as big as horses and sometimes bigger. Their bodies were white, their heads purple, their eyes blue. On their foreheads they had a sharp horn, which was white at the base, red at the top, and black in the middle. In India and China there was already talk of the unicorn before that time. The Roman Pliny the Elder also describes the animal.
Dimensions | 105x85mm |
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