Do UNICORNS exist? ~Q
Today is April 9th, 2019 is National Unicorn Day
Interesting history detailed in this excerpt from link at bottom:
The unicorn is Scotland’s national animal
To the outsider, this all may seem absurd. Yet today there are dozens of places to see the pure-white, mythical horse of fairy tales at large in Edinburgh – and across all of Scotland. Blurring the boundaries between fantasy and reality, you can see reminders of its influence on heraldic crests, engravings, gold coins, royal seals, wall panels, coats of arms, tombs and tapestries.
It’s long been a symbol of purity and power
“Everywhere you go in Scotland you can see them,” Hanley told me. “You just need to know where to look. Today, people read history through a 21st-Century lens – be it social media or whatever – and we miss the bigger picture as to how this all came together. Yet there’s a definite thread to follow. The unicorn is a symbol built on an ideology, and learning about it opens doors and surprises you. Even I find it almost unexplainable at times.”
This enigmatic creature has an equally complex and convoluted history that spans some 3,000 years. Considered real by the Ancient Greeks, the horse-like quadrupeds were first mentioned in the 4th Century BC by classical historian Ctesias in Indica, a book on India in which he describes the creature as a ‘wild ass’ with a horn sprouting from its temple.
Belief spread when the unicorn popped up in the Old Testament and references to mythical horses occurred in the Quran (the appearances of which are still wildly debated today), while the existence of other peculiar-looking, flesh-and-blood creatures, such as the rhinoceros, the oryx and the narwhal, did little to dispel the myth. One theory suggests unicorns were flushed off the face of the Earth because they were simply too slow to get onto Noah’s Ark before the flood.
Over time, the creature came to represent Jesus Christ.
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20190408-what-unicorns-mean-to-scottish-identity