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Ancient seals from the Indus valley depicted animals with a single horn which have been interpreted as indicating high social rank. The Assyrians had similar illustrations of a "rimu," which may have been the same beast as a wild, untamable creature of great strength and agility, the "re'em," in the Old Testament; it was translated as "monokeros" in the Greek Setuagint version and as "unicornis" in the Latin Vulgate. The English King James Bible cited Job 39:9-12: "Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him? Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?" In the 5th century BCE, Ktesias described Indian wild asses with a long horn (700 mm, 28 in); 400 years later Gaius Plinius Secundus mentioned "a very fierce animal called the monoceros which has the head of the stag, the feet of the elephant, and the tail of the boar, while the rest of the body is like that of the horse; it makes a deep lowing noise, and has a single black horn, which projects from the middle of its forehead, two cubits [900 mm, 35 inches] in length." At about the same time Strabon referred to 1-horned horses with stag-like heads. In the 6th century the Alexandrian merchant Cosmas Indicopleustes went to India and reported that "it is impossible to take this ferocious beast alive; and that all its strength lies in its horn. When it finds itself pursued and in danger of capture, it throws itself from a precipice, and turns so aptly in falling, that it receives all the shock upon the horn, and so escapes safe and sound." A Greek text, the "Physiologus," which may have been composed between the 2nd and 4th centuries, was translated into Latin by the 6th century and contained lists and descriptions of beasts that were alluded to for centuries: The unicorn was depicted as an allegory of the incarnation of Jesus (the figure of the Son in the Trinty) in the womb of Mary after he was miraculously conceived; the unicorn was trapped by a maiden and then fell asleep on her lap. The motif of a unicorn being tamable only by a virgin became a commonplace in art and literature; in the 15th century Leonard da Vinci wrote, "The unicorn, through its intemperance and not knowing how to control itself, for the love it bears to fair maidens forgets its ferocity and wildness; and laying aside all fear it will go up to a seated damsel and go to sleep in her lap, and thus the hunters take it." Meanwhile, the image evolved into depictions of courtly love between a knight and his lady and then into emblems of chaste love and faithful marriage. The horn was made of alicorn and could cure diseases and detect poisons.
Ancient seals from the Indus valley depicted animals with a single horn which have been interpreted as indicating high social rank. The Assyrians had similar illustrations of a "rimu," which may have been the same beast as a wild, untamable creature of great strength and agility, the "re'em," in the Old Testament; it was translated as "monokeros" in the Greek Setuagint version and as "unicornis" in the Latin Vulgate. The English King James Bible cited Job 39:9-12: "Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him? Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?" In the 5th century BCE, Ktesias described Indian wild asses with a long horn (700 mm, 28 in); 400 years later Gaius Plinius Secundus mentioned "a very fierce animal called the monoceros which has the head of the stag, the feet of the elephant, and the tail of the boar, while the rest of the body is like that of the horse; it makes a deep lowing noise, and has a single black horn, which projects from the middle of its forehead, two cubits [900 mm, 35 inches] in length." At about the same time Strabon referred to 1-horned horses with stag-like heads. In the 6th century the Alexandrian merchant Cosmas Indicopleustes went to India and reported that "it is impossible to take this ferocious beast alive; and that all its strength lies in its horn. When it finds itself pursued and in danger of capture, it throws itself from a precipice, and turns so aptly in falling, that it receives all the shock upon the horn, and so escapes safe and sound." A Greek text, the "Physiologus," which may have been composed between the 2nd and 4th centuries, was translated into Latin by the 6th century and contained lists and descriptions of beasts that were alluded to for centuries: The unicorn was depicted as an allegory of the incarnation of Jesus (the figure of the Son in the Trinty) in the womb of Mary after he was miraculously conceived; the unicorn was trapped by a maiden and then fell asleep on her lap. The motif of a unicorn being tamable only by a virgin became a commonplace in art and literature; in the 15th century Leonard da Vinci wrote, "The unicorn, through its intemperance and not knowing how to control itself, for the love it bears to fair maidens forgets its ferocity and wildness; and laying aside all fear it will go up to a seated damsel and go to sleep in her lap, and thus the hunters take it." Meanwhile, the image evolved into depictions of courtly love between a knight and his lady and then into emblems of chaste love and faithful marriage. The horn was made of alicorn and could cure diseases and detect poisons.
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