The Unicorn

Timeline

1. c. 400 BCCtesias: one-horned wild asses in IndiaREPORTED
2. c. 350 BCAristotle: the "Indian ass" has one hornCONFIRMED
3. AD 77Pliny's monoceros: elephant's feet, a black hornCONFIRMED
4. c. 1121A bestiary: shaped like a goat, caught by a virginCONFIRMED
5. c. 1292Marco Polo meets Sumatra's "unicorns": rhinosCONFIRMED
6. 1636Ole Worm sees a narwhal skull with the "horn" in itCONFIRMED
7. 1671Denmark's kings crowned on a narwhal-tooth throneCONFIRMED
8. 2018Elasmotherium dated to at least 39,000 years agoCONFIRMED

Evidence locker

1. c. 400 BCREPORTED

   Ctesias describes Indian wild asses with dark red heads, blue eyes, white bodies and a white, black and crimson horn; cups made from it protect against poison.

   He served at the Persian court and, as far as anyone knows, never went to India. His book survives in Photius's summary.

   • Ctesias via Photius, trans. McCrindle (1882)
2. c. 350 BCCONFIRMED

   Aristotle: a few animals have a solid hoof and one horn, "as the Indian ass, and the oryx".

   • Aristotle, History of Animals II.1, trans. Cresswell (1862)
3. AD 77CONFIRMED

   Pliny's monoceros has a stag's head, elephant's feet, a boar's tail, a horse's body and "a single black horn"; "it is said" it cannot be taken alive.

   His 19th-century translators note that the only certain one-horned animal is the rhinoceros.

   • Pliny, Natural History 8.31, trans. Bostock & Riley
4. c. 1121CONFIRMED

   Philippe de Thaun's bestiary gives the unicorn "the form of a goat": it can only be caught by means of a virgin, and it signifies Christ.

   • Trans. T. Wright, Popular Treatises on Science (1841)
5. c. 1292CONFIRMED

   Marco Polo's Sumatran "unicorns" have elephant's feet, a boar's head and a thick black horn: "a passing ugly beast", nothing like the one caught in a virgin's lap.

   • Marco Polo, trans. Yule (rev. Cordier), vol. 2
6. 1636CONFIRMED

   Ole Worm saw a narwhal skull with the "unicorn horn" still in it: a tooth from the upper jaw. He also tested the tooth against poison on pigeons and kittens, and thought it still had some power.

   Popular accounts say 1638; Worm's own book says 1636.

   • Worm, Museum Wormianum (1655), pp. 282–287
7. 1662–1671CONFIRMED

   Denmark's coronation chair, used 1671–1840, was said to be unicorn horn; it is narwhal tooth.

   • The Royal Danish Collection, Rosenborg Castle
8. 39,000 years agoCONFIRMED

   Elasmotherium, a giant rhino of about 3.5 tonnes with a forehead boss for a huge horn, survived until at least 39,000 years ago, overlapping with modern humans in Eurasia.

   No horn has ever been found; its size is inferred from the bone.

   • Kosintsev et al. (2019), Nature Ecology & Evolution 3
9. ?DISPUTED

   That people remembered Elasmotherium, or that it shaped unicorn legends.

   No remains at any archaeological site; suggested cave-art depictions are "unconvincing" (Kosintsev et al.).

   • Kosintsev et al. (2019), author manuscript

See the real thing

We don't own these photos and videos, so the episode recreates them. Here are the originals:

• Ole Worm's narwhal woodcut, 1655 (Internet Archive)
• Denmark's narwhal-tooth coronation chair (Royal Danish Collection)
• The Siberian unicorn (Natural History Museum)

What's recreated RECREATION

These shots are our own illustrations of real events, not footage:

• Ctesias's wild ass, coloured as he describes it
• Pliny's monoceros, assembled from its parts
• Elasmotherium, with its unknown horn drawn dashed

Corrections

None yet. If you spot one, tell us and it'll be logged here with the date.