A side profile of what appears like a horse with a single horn shows is seen on seals from the Indus Valley Civilization, roughly 3300 BC to 1300 BC in South Asia, which comprised some portions of modern-day Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan.
A Live Science report specified that one of the most popular mythical creatures is frequently depicted "as a white horse with a spiraling horn that erupts from its forehead.
Where did the unicorn myth come from? https://t.co/zhdHQyQUD0
— wtfiscrackin (@wtfiscrackin) April 9, 2022
It's not difficult to imagine a horse with a horn, and people believe it has existed for many of the creature's history. However, the origin of unicorns remains a mystery.
Unicorn-like imagery is dated back to the said era, written Chines descriptions of the date of the Asian unicorn to the New York-based American Museum of Natural History.
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The Narwhal is known for its long twisted tusk, but this one had a pair, the longest 2.41 meter and the other a little shorter.
A Combination of Different Animals
This particular unicorn appeared to be a combination of different animals and had the body of a deer, an oxtail, a multicolored or scaly dragon-like coat, and flash-covered horns.
Asian unicorns were described as solitary and elusive creatures despite their physical differences, just as they were in the latter European records.
The initially documented mention of unicorns in Wester literature came in the fourth century BC Ctesias, a historian and doctor, listed down tales from Indian travelers and described horse-size "wild assess" which have white bodies, redheads, blue eyes, and a multicolored horn roughly 1.5 feet in length, a Time report specified.
The unicorn of Ctsesian was likely based on descriptions of several animals like Indian rhinos or Rhinoceros unicorns and wild asses. Mistranslations contributed to the transformation of unicorns from confusing composite animals into majestic white creatures.
From 'Monokeros' to 'Unicornus'
During the third century BC, scholars translating the Bible from Hebrew into Greek took the Hebrew term "monokeros," which meant "one born," which had been employed for rhinos.
Later on, the word became "unicornus" in Latin translations of the Greek Bible and "unicorn" in English versions of Latin, as specified in Meriam-Webster. Therefore, the unicorn became a Biblical animal linked to Jesus Christ and purity.
Marco Polo, the Italian explorer, discovered unicorn stories did not quite match reality when he traveled through Asia and found what he thought was a unicorn for the first time in the 13th century, a report detailed in "The Travels of Marco Polo." Polo described the unicorn as having a "large, black horn," with hair like a buffalo and feet that of an elephant's.
Narwhal Sold as 'Unicorn' Horns
Merchants and sailors introduced narwhal or Monodon Monoceros tusks to European markets during the Middle Ages. According to the AMNH, they were sold as "unicorn" horns.
Narwhals are toothed whales from the arctic. The male ones possess a projecting tooth between 6.6 and 9.8 feet to three meters in length, resembling a horn, a report from the University of Washinton's Polar Science Center specified. Europeans did not have a consistent description of what unicorn horns should look like before trading narwhal tusks.
After these tusks arrived in medial markets, unicorn horns were nearly always described as "long, white, and spiraled," similar to narwhal tusks.
Related information about the Unicorns is shown on The Jewel Riders' Archive's YouTube video below:
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