When mythology started. The predecessor of the medieval bestiary, compiled in Late Antiquity and known as Physiologus, popularized an elaborate allegory in which a unicorn, trapped by a maiden (representing the Virgin Mary), stood for the Incarnation. As soon as the unicorn sees her, it lays its head on her lap and falls asleep. This became a basic emblematic tag that underlies medieval notions of the unicorn, justifying its appearance in every form of religious art. The two major interpretations of the unicorn symbol hinge on pagan and Catholic symbolism. The pagan interpretation focuses on the medieval lore of beguiled lovers, whereas some Catholic writings interpret the unicorn and its death as the Passion of Christ. The unicorn has long been identified as a symbol of Christ by Catholic writers, allowing the traditionally pagan symbolism of the unicorn to become acceptable within religious doctrine. The original myths refer to a beast with one horn that can only be tamed by a virgin maiden; subsequently, some Catholic scholars translated this into an allegory for Christ's relationship with the Virgin Mary. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorn
yes, but when. was it just coincidence that the narwhal horn looks like a unicorn horn? Or did they find one and start the myth?
Wikipedia says that one-horned elands have occured naturally. Elands are a giant species of antelope that have been known to kill lions in self-defense, so legends about them were sure to arise. Europeans and Western Asians have been traveling to sub-Saharan Africa for as long as we have written history of the peoples, so they would surely have become familiar with the legends and it would be no surprise if, over thousands of years, a visitor occasionally caught sight of a mutated one-horned eland. However, the rhinoceros is a land mammal with a single horn and the same European and Asian travelers to Africa would have seen a lot more of them than one-horned elands. Furthermore, the larger, white woolly rhinoceros still inhabited Europe at the end of the Ice Age, about 25,000 years ago when Homo sapiens first began colonizing the continent. There are a variety of forces at work in Eurasian history to reinforce the unicorn myth. The Wiki article says that the Norsemen, sensibly enough, reasoned that the existence of narwhals made it at least reasonable to accept the possiblity of one-horned land mammals. In Western mythology the unicorn has the distinction among mythical creatures of manifesting man's hopeful instincts rather than being borne out of his fears. Even our dragons are evil creatures, unlike those of the East Asians.
/Off-topic In Dutch an Eland is this: Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Moose (Eland in Dutch) And (perhaps not surprisingly) we call this an Elandantilope: Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Eland (Elandantilope in Dutch)
