The Unicorn: Origin, History and Meaning of a Legend

The Girl and the Unicorn, a Posterscape poster.

The unicorn is a legendary animal, usually shown as a white horse with a single spiral horn on its forehead. It has never existed, yet people have believed in it for more than two thousand years. Greek writers described it as a real animal living in India, medieval Europe made it a symbol of purity and of Christ, merchants sold its "horn" as a cure for poison, and Scotland chose it as its national animal.

Here is the story of the legend, from the first written accounts to the rainbow unicorn of today, and what it has meant across cultures.

The Unicorn at a Glance

• Name: from the Latin unicornis, "one horn" (Greek monokeros)
• First written description: the Greek physician Ctesias, around 400 BC
• Earliest images: one-horned animals on Indus Valley seals, about 2600 to 1900 BC
• Symbol of: purity, grace, healing and power; Christ in medieval allegory
• Famous artworks: The Lady and the Unicorn (Paris) and The Hunt of the Unicorn (New York), both from around 1500
• National animal: Scotland

Where Does the Unicorn Come From?

The oldest images of a one-horned animal come from the Indus Valley civilisation, in present-day Pakistan and India. Thousands of small stone seals, carved between about 2600 and 1900 BC, show a bull-like creature in profile with a single horn. Archaeologists often call it the "unicorn seal", although no one knows whether the carvers meant one horn or two horns seen from the side.

The first written description is Greek. Around 400 BC, Ctesias of Cnidus, a physician at the Persian court, wrote about wild asses in India the size of horses, with white bodies, red heads and a horn about a cubit long, white at the base, black in the middle and red at the tip. Drinking from a cup made of this horn, he said, protected against poison. Aristotle later mentioned the "Indian ass" as a one-horned animal, and in the 1st century AD Pliny the Elder described the monoceros: the body of a horse, the head of a stag, the feet of an elephant, the tail of a boar, a deep bellow and a black horn two cubits long. For these authors the unicorn was not a myth but a rare animal of a distant land.

From the Bible to the Maiden Legend

The unicorn entered the Bible through translation. The Hebrew text mentions a strong wild animal called the re'em, probably the aurochs, the wild ox of the time. The Greek translators of the Septuagint rendered it as monokeros, Latin versions followed, and the King James Version of 1611 still speaks of the "unicorn". For centuries, readers took this as proof that unicorns were real.

The best-known part of the legend comes from the Physiologus, a Greek text written in Alexandria between the 2nd and 4th centuries. It says the unicorn is too fast and too fierce for any hunter, but that it will come and lay its head in the lap of a young virgin, who can then capture it. Christian readers saw it as an image of Christ, born of the Virgin Mary. Medieval bestiaries repeated the story, and the unicorn became a symbol of purity.

The Great Unicorn Tapestries

Around 1500, the unicorn appears in two of the most famous works of the late Middle Ages. The Lady and the Unicorn is a set of six tapestries, probably woven in Flanders from designs drawn in Paris. In each one, a lady stands on a blue island covered with flowers, between a lion and a unicorn. Five tapestries show the five senses; the sixth bears the motto À mon seul désir ("to my only desire"), whose meaning is still debated. Forgotten in a castle in central France, they were noticed in 1841 by the writer Prosper Mérimée, praised by George Sand, and bought in 1882 by the Musée de Cluny in Paris, where they still hang.

The other set, The Hunt of the Unicorn, has seven tapestries made around 1495 to 1505 and now kept at The Met Cloisters in New York. It tells the story of a hunt: the unicorn purifies a stream with its horn, is chased, killed and finally shown alive again, chained inside a small fence under a pomegranate tree. Both sets use the millefleurs style, a background scattered with hundreds of small flowers and animals.

Unicorn Horn: a Remedy Worth a Fortune

From the Middle Ages to the 17th century, "unicorn horn", or alicorn, was one of the most precious substances in Europe. Ground into powder or carved into cups, it was believed to detect and cure poison, and kings and popes kept whole horns among their treasures. In reality, these long spiral horns were narwhal tusks, brought from the Arctic by Scandinavian traders who kept their origin secret.

Doubts grew with the Renaissance. In 1582 the French surgeon Ambroise Paré wrote a short treatise questioning the powers of unicorn horn, and in 1638 the Danish naturalist Ole Worm showed that the famous horns came from the narwhal. The trade did not disappear overnight: between 1662 and 1671, the kings of Denmark still had a coronation throne made of narwhal tusks, now on display at Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen. Naturalists such as the Italian Ulisse Aldrovandi kept drawing several kinds of unicorns in their books, side by side with real animals.

The camphur and the pirassoipi, as imagined by Ulisse Aldrovandi.

One-Horned Creatures Around the World

The qilin, a chimera from Chinese mythology.

Europe is not the only place where a one-horned creature appears. In China, the qilin is a gentle chimera with a deer's body, scales and sometimes a single horn. It walks without crushing the grass and only appears in times of peace or before the birth of a great sage: legend says a qilin announced the birth of Confucius. Japan knows it as the kirin, Korea as the girin, and it is often translated as "Chinese unicorn", even though it looks very little like a white horse. Our unicorn in the style of Japanese woodblock prints borrows from this Eastern tradition.

In Persia and the Arab world, the karkadann was a fierce one-horned beast, probably inspired by the rhinoceros, that only a dove could calm. These creatures show how often, in very different cultures, a single horn came to stand for something rare and powerful.

Why Is the Unicorn the National Animal of Scotland?

The unicorn has appeared on the royal arms of Scotland since the 15th century, and King James III even struck a gold coin called the "unicorn". The animal stood for purity, but also for strength and pride: it was said that only a king could tame it, which is why heraldic unicorns often wear a gold chain.

When James VI of Scotland also became king of England in 1603, he combined the English lion and the Scottish unicorn as the two supporters of the royal coat of arms, where they still face each other today. Unicorns also top many old market crosses in Scottish towns, and the unicorn is officially recognised as the national animal of Scotland.

What Does the Unicorn Stand For?

Over the centuries, the unicorn has carried many meanings. In the Middle Ages it stood for purity and innocence, through the maiden legend, and for Christ, through the Physiologus. Its horn made it a symbol of healing and protection against poison. In heraldry it meant nobility, strength and freedom, since a unicorn could not be captured by force.

Today, the unicorn mostly stands for magic, imagination and uniqueness: something rare that does not quite belong to the real world. It is also used as a symbol of diversity, and in business a "unicorn" is a start-up valued at more than one billion dollars, a term coined by the investor Aileen Lee in 2013 precisely because such companies were so rare.

Did Unicorns Ever Exist?

No horse with a single horn has ever lived. The legend probably grew from real animals described by travellers: the Indian rhinoceros, the oryx seen in profile, and the narwhal, whose tusk passed for a unicorn horn. When Marco Polo saw rhinoceroses in Sumatra at the end of the 13th century, he wrote that these "unicorns" were ugly animals that did not let themselves be caught by maidens.

There was, however, a prehistoric "Siberian unicorn": Elasmotherium sibiricum, a giant rhinoceros with one huge horn on its forehead, which lived in the steppes of Eurasia until about 39,000 years ago, long before the first written legends.

The Modern Unicorn

In the 20th century, the unicorn moved from bestiaries to children's books. Peter S. Beagle's novel The Last Unicorn (1968) and its 1982 animated film gave it a melancholy, poetic side. From the 1980s onward, toys, stickers and cartoons turned it into the pastel, rainbow-maned creature many children know today. The ancient legend lives on in this new form: a creature of wonder, gentle and impossible to catch.

Unicorn FAQ

What is a unicorn?

A unicorn is a legendary animal, usually shown as a white horse with a single spiral horn on its forehead. Greek writers described it as a real animal of India, and in medieval Europe it became a symbol of purity.

Which country has the unicorn as its national animal?

Scotland. The unicorn has appeared on the Scottish royal arms since the 15th century, and it still faces the English lion on the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom.

Were unicorns ever real?

No. The legend probably comes from descriptions of the rhinoceros, the oryx and the narwhal, whose tusks were sold as unicorn horns. A prehistoric giant rhinoceros nicknamed the "Siberian unicorn" lived until about 39,000 years ago.

What does a unicorn represent?

Purity and innocence in the Middle Ages, Christ in religious allegory, healing because of its horn, and strength and freedom in heraldry. Today it mostly stands for magic, imagination and uniqueness.

Where can you see The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries?

At the Musée de Cluny, the National Museum of the Middle Ages in Paris, which has kept the six tapestries since 1882. The Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries are at The Met Cloisters in New York.

Unicorns on Your Walls

The unicorn has never stopped inspiring artists, and it still has its place on a bedroom wall. Our unicorn posters take it in many directions, from kawaii baby unicorns to pixel art. The Girl and the Unicorn, our best-selling design, even echoes the old legend of the maiden and the unicorn.

Unicorn and pink forest, a Posterscape poster.