In this day and age, unicorns are viewed as fantasy creatures. Especially popular in children's books and in movies are unicorns of gentle nature, often cute and fluffy and sometimes with a maiden by its side. However, there are historical facts about unicorns which most of us know nothing. The unicorn is mentioned in the Holy Bible several times as a real creature.
Here are a few Bible passages mentioning the unicorn:
Job 39: 9: “Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?”
Job 39:10: “Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in a furrow? Or will he harrow the valleys after thee?”
Job 39:11: Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? Or wilt thou leave thy labor to him?
Job 39:12: “Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it unto thy barn?”
This is not some cute little animal, because his strength is great. You cannot control him. You cannot use him as a domestic animal. What we see here is the unicorn whose name Re'em comes from the Hebrew, so this is a naturally accepted animal.
Numbers 24:8: “God brought forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of a unicorn.”
These passages would have us believe that the strength of the unicorn is extremely mighty and physically very powerful.
Psalms 92:10: “But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of the unicorn.”
So it is seen in the Bible that these creatures are discussed like angels, as if they were real.
In history, it is noted that Julius Caesar saw a unicorn. Alexander the Great saw a unicorn. Genghis Kahn stopped his attack on India because of a unicorn. Throughout history, they are in Chinese culture and just about every other culture mentions them in high regard. It is widely believed that unicorns became extinct because they died for their horns. The unicorn in Persia is described as having hollow horns which created beautiful and tempting melodies when the wind blew through them. Other animals, when hearing these melodies were lured from their hiding places and killed.
Alexander the Great supposedly rode a unicorn, and when he was able to tame it, his father told him the entire world could not contain him. The one Julius Caesar saw was described as being eighteen feet tall and the one Alexander the Greats' was described as sixteen feet tall and scared his troops so badly, they ran because their horses were extremely agitated. Apparently, at that height, they would weigh thousands of pounds and be as big as some two-story houses.
As far as hunting unicorns, Leonardo Da Vinci wrote: “The unicorn, through it's intemperance and not knowing how to control itself, for the love it bears to fair maidens forgets its ferocity and wildness; and laying aside all fear it will go up to a seated damsel and go to sleep in her lap, and thus the hunters take it.” From this we can see where the legend of unicorns and fair maidens are often together in today's pictures and movies.
Thus, we can see how the unicorn may have been an actual creature, far beyond the animal we picture today. Since we have no actual evidence as far as preserved horns or fossilized bones, we must simply believe or not believe.
