It had a horn which sprouted from the middle of its forehead and had survived far longer than initially thought, disappearing only 40,000 years ago. A recent study led by Professor Adrian Lister, Merit Researcher at the Natural History Museum, has shown that Elasmotherium Sibericum was a distant relative of the modern rhinoceros. Interestingly, according to the National Museums of Scotland, is the fact that ‘unicorns’ did actually roam the earth not that long ago. Often associated with the moon and believed to have great healing powers, the unicorn quickly acquired different meanings in different cultures. Whatever the location, the sighting of such an animal was a rare and mystical event. Whilst the animal did not appear in the vast volumes of Greek mythological tales, it was cited by philosophers and writers who believed in the reality of such a creature, with figures such as the famous Greek geographer Strabo claiming such creatures lived in the Caucasus region, whilst other philosophers were convinced of their existence in India. Even the Bible makes a record of an animal called the re’em which has been later associated with the unicorn. ![]() In a piece by Jessica Brain, published in Historic UK, she states that across ancient civilisations ranging from the Persians, the Egyptians, Indians and Greeks, such a creature was described and recorded, often with magical connotations. The actual animal behind Ctesias’s description was probably the Indian rhinoceros. It was very fleet of foot and difficult to capture. Those who drank from its horn were thought to be protected from stomach trouble, epilepsy, and poison. 400 BCE), who related that the Indian wild ass was the size of a horse, with a white body, purple head, and blue eyes, and on its forehead was a cubit-long horn coloured red at the pointed tip, black in the middle, and white at the base. ![]() The earliest description in Greek literature of a single-horned (Greek monokerōs, Latin unicornis) animal was by the historian Ctesias (c. The unicorn appeared in early Mesopotamian artworks, and it also was referred to in the ancient myths of India and China. The Unicorn It was believed that only a virgin could pacify a unicornĪccording to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, the Unicorn was a mythological animal resembling a horse or a goat with a single horn on its forehead.
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