Bulfinch’s Mythology · Chapter
The Unicorn explained
This chapter explores the mythical unicorn as described by Pliny the Roman naturalist, detailing its ferocious appearance, the legends surrounding its horn and capture, and the modern zoological skepticism about its existence, noting that t
What happens
This chapter explores the mythical unicorn as described by Pliny the Roman naturalist, detailing its ferocious appearance, the legends surrounding its horn and capture, and the modern zoological skepticism about its existence, noting that the rhinoceros and giraffe have only partial resemblances.
Key passages
“Pliny, the Roman naturalist, out of whose account of the unicorn most of the modern unicorns have been described and figured, records it as 'a very ferocious beast, similar in the rest of its body to a horse, with the head of a deer, the feet of an elephant, the tail of a boar, a deep, bellowing voice, and a single black horn, two cubits in length, standing out in the middle of its forehead.'”
Pliny the Elder described the unicorn as a fierce creature with a horse-like body, deer head, elephant feet, boar tail, a loud voice, and a single black horn two cubits long on its forehead.
This passage establishes the classical description of the unicorn that influenced later depictions.
“They discovered that it was a great lover of purity and innocence, so they took the field with a young virgin, who was placed in the unsuspecting admirer's way. When the unicorn spied her, he approached with all reverence, couched beside her, and laying his head in her lap, fell asleep. The treacherous virgin then gave a signal, and the hunters made in and captured the simple beast.”
Hunters learned the unicorn loved purity, so they used a virgin as bait; the unicorn would lay its head in her lap and fall asleep, allowing the hunters to capture it.
This fable illustrates the unicorn's association with chastity and the deceptive means used to trap it.
“In fine, though it would be presumptuous to deny the existence of a one-horned quadruped other than the rhinoceros, it may be safely stated that the insertion of a long and solid horn in the living forehead of a horse-like or deer-like animal is as near an impossibility as anything can be.”
While it is not impossible that a one-horned animal besides the rhinoceros exists, a long solid horn on a horse or deer forehead is highly improbable.
This concluding statement reflects the modern scientific skepticism about the unicorn's physical plausibility.