Do Unicorns Exist?

Everyone knows what a unicorn is, but nobody has ever seen one. Or perhaps someone has, but we have no photographic evidence. Unicorns and their skulls play a prominent role in Murakami’s “Hard-Boiled Wonderland,” popping up numerous times. For most of chapter 9, Murakami discusses unicorns at great length. So this got me thinking about unicorns and how the myth first came up. I researched the origins of unicorns, as well as, what animals (that we know existed for real) could have been mistaken for unicorns. Murakami makes a lot of different claims about unicorns in his book: they can have one to three horns, and there are different varieties (Greek, Chinese). They can be aggressive or gentle and signs of good luck or powerful lust. Murakami also mentions the narwhal, the qilin, the triceratops, and the rhinoceros in relation to the unicorn. Here’s what I found out:

-The word “unicorn” is mentioned 9 times in the King James version of the Bible; in modern translations, the word is changed to “wild ox” or “buffalo”

-The origin of the unicorn can not be traced exactly, though there are many accounts of the unicorn that can be traced back as far as 5th century BC

-Ctesias’ (Greek physician and historian) account: Unicorn has a white body, a head that is dark red, eyes that are dark blue, with 1 horn that consists of 3 colors: the base is white, the middle is black, and the upper part is crimson

-Pliny’s account: Unicorn had the head of a stag, body of a horse, the feet on an elephant, a tail like a boar, and one single black horn that measured 3 feet long

-Aristotle’s account: Refers to unicorn as “ass of India,” he claimed that the horn was attached to the unicorn’s head by skin rather than bone so that it may be moved up and down like ears

-Solinus’ (Latin compiler) account: Describes the unicorn as a monster; “a cruel animal with a horrible bellow;” asserts that the unicorn cannot be caught alive

-Often compared to a goat, a horse, an ass/donkey, a stag in older accounts

-Some accounts describe the unicorn as having small wings; possible link to Pegasus

-Current day representations of unicorns usually presents them as essentially white horses with a long horn at the top of their head (typically thought of as more beautiful than ugly)

-Greek accounts typically describe the unicorn as having the ability to be both fierce and gentle

-Chinese version of a Unicorn: was said to have a fleshy horn that was useless in fights, skin that was white, red, yellow, blue and black; with feet like a horse and a voice like bells; it was believed that unicorns could walk on water as well as land; known to be very gentle; one of the 4 sacred animals of China (which includes phoenix, dragon, and tortoise)

-Chinese accounts asserted that the unicorn was a portent of good fortune

-Qilin and unicorn are sometimes used interchangeably though they have slight differences; the Qilin is a Chinese chimerical creature with a body that is described as looking like fire

-There was a long standing belief that only a virgin could tame a unicorn

-Unicorns are often used as symbols of purity and innocence

-Also linked to the eclipse, the sun, and the moon which relates to the Chinese assertion that unicorns descended from heaven

-Unicorn horns are often allegorically interpreted as the union of Christ with the Father

-Unicorn horns were thought to have magical properties: it is said that the horn could purify water and eliminate poisons from drinks; it was also said to have medicinal properties (interestingly enough, rhino horns are poached to this very day for many reasons, one of which being that they are believed to have medicinal properties)

-Many animals that exist today or that have been proven to exist have horns (or bumps, in the case of the giraffe) and descriptions similar to the early accounts of unicorns: Rhinoceros, Narwhal, the extinct Triceratops, Giraffes, and multiple types of antelope (Impala, Nyala, Dik Dik, Springbok, etc.)

-Unicorns are used a lot in sci-fi or fantasy literature because now they are believed to be purely mythological creatures

-The unicorn myth is still being expanded upon today; ex. Harry Potter (unicorn blood can keep any man alive, but that man’s life will be cursed)

Some early portrayals of “Unicorns”