Unicorns, Were They Once Real or Just a MythKeith
Unicorns, Real or Just a Myth
DO UNICORNS EXIST?
People have a fascination for mythological creatures. Especially the unicorn, shown as a beautiful white horse with a single, spirally horn. Unlike other mythological creatures unicorns are portrayed as peaceful animals and symbols of strength or purity.
A MYTH GETS ITS WINGS…AND HORN
Unicorns have been depicted in art as early as the Mesopotamian era (5000-3500 BC), as well as in ancient Greece, India, and China, they are mentioned in the Bible 9 times! Perhaps a poor translation of re’em, Hebrew for wild ox, the King James versions mentions unicorns by name in the context of other familiar animals like lions, lambs, peacocks, and goats! Early Christians even used unicorns as a symbol for Christ!
Greece – The Greek historian Ctesias (c.400 BC) described a single-horned animal.
India – Folklore told of a creature the size of a horse, with a white body, purple head, and blue eyes, with a long multi-coloured horn, white at the bottom, black in the middle and a red tip.
China – Unicorns were among four sacred creatures,the phoenix, dragon, and tortoise. They often heralded a birth or death and legends tell of a unicorn appearing when Chinese philosopher Confucius was born.
Scotland – The Scots designated the unicorn as their national animal in the late 1300s. The choice makes more sense than you might think. English royalty had adopted the lion as its symbol, and the unicorn was once seen as the lion’s natural enemy. These two animals came to represent the ongoing conflict between the two nations.
MORE THAN MYTH?
In 2016, a discovery of fossilized bones of a prehistoric, one-horned animal in the Pavlodar region of modern Kazakhstan was made. Named Elasmotherium Sibiricum, also known as the Siberian unicorn! While these creatures did have a single horn, they in no way resembled a majestic white horse. More like a rhino, the Siberian unicorn stood approx. 6-feet tall and 15-feet long, weighing in at a huge 8,000 pounds!
The Siberian unicorn was not completely unknown in the scientific community at the time. It was assumed to have gone extinct over 350,000 years ago, well before humans populated the earth. The newly discovered fossils reveal these creatures were still around about 29,000 years ago—alongside humans!