Around 400 BCE, the unicorn was described by
Ctesias, according to
Photius, as carrying a horn which princes would use to make
hanaps to protect against
poison.
Claudius Aelianus said that drinking from this horn protects against diseases and poisons. These writings influenced authors from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance: the unicorn becomes the most important and frequently mentioned fantastic animal in the West, but it was considered real. Other parts of its body were alleged to have medicinal properties, and in the 12th century abbess
Hildegard of Bingen recommended an ointment against
leprosy made from unicorn liver and egg yolk. Wearing a unicorn
leather belt was supposed to protect a person from the
plague and
fevers, while leather shoes of this animal prevented diseases of the feet, legs and loins. The medicinal efficacy linked to its horn and its alexipharmic powers were assumed to be true in
antiquity, but were not explicitly mentioned in the West again until the 14th century.
Legends about these properties were the stimulus for a flourishing trade in these chips and dust up to the mid-17th century, when their true origin became widely known. The alicorn never existed as such; it was most often
narwhal teeth that were known as "unicorn horns".
Water purification '' by
Hieronymus Bosch (1503-1504), showing unicorns purifying water. The first post-classical reference to the cleansing power of the unicorn appears in an interpretation of the
Physiologus (dated perhaps to the 14th century), when reference is made to a large
lake where animals congregate to drink: This theme became very popular, and in 1389 Father
Johann van Hesse claimed to have seen a unicorn emerge at sunrise to decontaminate the contaminated water of the River Marah, so that the good animals could drink.
Symbolically, the snake that poisons the water is the
devil and the unicorn represents
Christ the Redeemer. The origin of this legend seems
Indian, and
Greek texts report that Indian nobles drank out of unicorn horns to protect themselves from diseases and poisons. The unicorn is most often represented beside a river, lake or fountain, while animals wait for him to finish his work before drinking. This scene is common in the art of the 16th and 17th centuries. Studies and translations of these drawings and stories popularized the belief that the power of the animal came from its horn, which could neutralize the poison as soon as the liquid or solid touched the alicorn piece. The alicorn was assigned many medicinal properties and, over time, in addition to the purification of polluted water in nature, The monks of the Parisian monasteries used to soak it in the drinking water given to
lepers. or against the
plague. The horn was prepared in several ways, in solid form, or by infusion Its prophylactic function and magical power were assumed for centuries; as its trade increased, "fake" horns and false powders appeared. The astronomical prices paid for alicorn reflected the belief that their imaginary virtues could cause real healing. Many works are devoted to the explanation and defence of the medicinal properties of the alicorn, including
The Treaty of the Unicorn, its wonderful properties and its use (1573) by Andrea Bacci and
Natural History, Hunting, Virtues, and Use of Lycorn (1624) by
apothecary Laurent Catelan. Bacci probably wrote his book at the request of his patients, who were major investors in the unicorn horn trade.
Display and use as antipoison in Utrecht, now on display at the
Rijksmuseum. Of a twisted configuration, alicorns were traded as valuable items for many centuries: according to legend, the "horn" on display at the
Musée national du Moyen Âge was a gift from the
Caliph of Baghdad,
Harun al-Rashid, to
Charlemagne in 807. An eight-foot long horn is exhibited in
Bruges,
Flanders. These objects would have been exchanged up to eleven times their weight in
gold.
Pope Clement VII offered a unicorn horn two cubits long to King
Francis I of France at the wedding of his niece
Catherine de' Medici in
Marseille in October 1533, and the king did not ever move without a bag filled with unicorn powder. Also, the
Grand Inquisitor Torquemada always carried unicorn horn to protect himself from poison and murderers. ==References==