UNICORNS combine both male and female elements with its masculine horn and female body. In symbolic terms, the unicorn stood for the reconciliation of other opposites. The single horn of the unicorn indicates both virility and kingly power, and is also a sign of purity. From a book by Greek historian Ctesias c.398 B.C.E., the description was: "There are in India certain wild asses which are as large as horses, and larger. Their bodies are white, their heads dark read, and their eyes dark blue. They have a horn on the forehead which is about a foot and a half in length." The unicorn seems to be a mixture of the rhinoceros, the Himalayan antelope, and the wild ass. Its horn came to a long sharp point, to be white at the base, black in the center, and crimson at the tip. Ctesias claims that dust scraped from the horn was an antidote to poison, and that those who drank from the horn would be protected from convulsions and from poisoning. In the 17th and 18th centuries alicorn, a powder allegedly made from unicorn horn, was printed on the drug lists issued by the English Royal Society of Physicians. It was very expensive. The druggists explanation for the high costs was that unicorns were mostly caught in India, and the powder had to be shipped from there. The purifying nature of the unicorn's horn comes from a famous medieval legend. This story says that many animals gather at dusk by a pool to quench their thirst, but the water is poisoned and they are unable to drink. Soon they are joined by the unicorn who dips its horn into the water and cleanses it. Another famous medieval legend is the capture of the unicorn by a young female virgin. The unicorn, a small goat-like creature too fierce and swift to be captured by hunters, could only be tamed by a female virigin seated alone in a forest under a tree. Attracted by her perfume of chastity, the unicorn would approach and lay its head in her lap. She would stroke its horn and lull it to sleep. Then she would betray the animal by cutting off its horn, and hand it over to the hunters. More currently is the movie Legend that revolves around two very beautiful unicorns. Then there is the animated tale, The Last Unicorn, and the really cute Unico. Back to: Historical Ways Mystical Madness