The Unicorn

From China to the Bible: The origins of the unicorn

The roots of the unicorn reach further back than many assume. In China, the Chi-lin – a unicorn-like being with dazzling attributes – was already recorded in 2697 BC. Indian legends also describe a solitary, one-horned creature. By the 5th century BC, the Greek physician Ctesias, who lived at the Persian court, brought the unicorn into the Western imagination with his descriptions of a horned animal from India.

Travellers such as Marco Polo, in his famous Le Livre des Merveilles, further embedded the unicorn in European culture. Though his account likely described a rhinoceros, the European image of a graceful, horse-like creature with a long spiralled horn had already taken root.

A mistranslation with consequences: The unicorn in the Bible

Even the Bible features the unicorn – though only due to a mistranslation. The Hebrew word Re’em, probably denoting an aurochs or wild ox, was rendered in Greek and later Latin as Unicornis. This biblical “unicorn” was long accepted as real – a belief that persisted well into the 17th century.

From salvation to commerce: The unicorn’s horn

By the late Middle Ages, the unicorn’s horn had become a precious commodity. In reality, these were narwhal tusks, traded as unicorn horns at extraordinary prices. Considered a universal antidote and aphrodisiac, they were displayed in princely treasuries and apothecaries such as “Zum Einhorn” and remain preserved in collections including the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Duality in medieval art: A creature of extremes

The unicorn’s symbolism was never one-dimensional. In the Stuttgart Psalter, a lion and a unicorn charge furiously at the Crucifixion scene, embodying danger as well as salvation. Such ambivalence reflects the medieval worldview: the unicorn could be pure and perilous, a healer and a threat, a symbol of chastity and desire.

Courtly love and worldly allure

Beyond the religious sphere, the unicorn also became a symbol of courtly love, fidelity, and power. The taming maiden represented the idealised beloved, a fusion of erotic desire and spiritual devotion.

Iconic works such as La Dame à la Licorne (Musée de Cluny, Paris) or The Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries (The Cloisters, New York) show this duality in sumptuous detail. The latter culminates in a striking image: the unicorn, hunted by twelve men, finally captured yet serene, bound to a pomegranate tree amidst a flowering meadow of fertility symbols.

Renaissance reinventions

The unicorn retained its symbolic richness into the Renaissance. In Raphael’s Lady with a Unicorn or Stefan Lochner’s Madonna of the Rose Bower, the creature appears either as a subtle emblem of chastity or as a profound symbol of divine grace. Even the smallest depiction – such as a clasp on the Virgin’s robe – could carry layered meaning.