Unicorn, mystical, creature, ancient, Greek, Roman, myths, virgin, purity, horn,

Unicorn: Mystical Creature of Greek and Roman Myths

The Unicorn was a mystical creature described
in ancient Greek and Roman myths. They were
placed among virgin saints and said to be an
emblem of purity. Though it would fight
savagely when cornered, it could be tamed
by a virgin's touch.

The Creature
The unicorn  was a marvelous beast, shining with honor, wisdom 
and strenth.Just to see him strengthened the soul.

The Unicorn, a large horse with a single horn on its forehead. 
Also described as the tail of a lion, hind legs of an antelope,  
and the beard of a goat.

The unicorn may have been created from distorted reports of 
rhinoceroses. Ctesias,  a Greek physician,  about 400 BC wrote 
a classic description of the unicorn,  calling it an Indian 
wild ass with a white body,  purple head,  and a straight 
"cubit-long" (the distance from elbow to the tip of the finger) 
horn with a white base,  black middle,  and red tip. He 
described it as fleet and fierce. The unicorn is also mentioned 
in the writings of Aristotle,  Pliny,  and Aelian.

Though it would fight savagely when cornered, medieval 
Christendom the unicorn was endowed with symbolic qualities,  
both religious and secular. As a biblical beast it acquired 
ecclesiastical associations. It represented chastity and 
purity. it could be tamed by a virgin's touch. Unicorns were 
also popular emblems in medieval heraldry.

The Unicorn and the fairy

The last Unicorn The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. She
was very old, though she did not knew it, and she was no longer
the careless color of sea foam, but rather the color of snow
falling on a moonlit night. But her eyes were still clear and
underwearied, and she still moved like a shadow on the sea.
She did not look anything like a horned horse, as unicorns are
often pictured, being smaller and cloven-hoofed, and posessing
that oldest, wildest grace that horses have never had, that deer
have only in a shy, thin imitation and goats in dancing mockery.
Her neck was long and slender, making her head seem smaller than
it was, and the mane that fell almost to the middle of her back
was as soft as dandelion fluff and as fine as cirrus.
She had pointed ears and thin legs, with feathers of white hair
at the ankles; and the long horn above her eyes shone and
shivered with its own seashell light even in the deepest
midnight.

She had killed dragons with it, and healed a king whose poisoned
wound would not close, and knocked down ripe chestnuts for bear
cubs.

From the book "The Last Unicorn" by Peter S. Beagle.

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