Unicorn

Unicorn, 13th c. floor mosaic, Basilica of San Giovanni Evangelista, Ravenna

While we are talking about unicorns, I actually believe that unicorns (horses with a single giant "horn") do exist...Except their horns are depicted in the wrong place...Probably because of the morals 🙂 

The predecessor of all medieval bestiaries, Physiologus (Φυσιολόγος), which was compiled in Alexandria sometime between 2nd-4th c. AD, popularised an elaborate allegory about a unicorn trapped by a maiden (representing the Virgin Mary) 

"As soon as the unicorn sees the virgin, it lays its head on her lap and falls asleep" it claims...

What does this mean? 

Well I believe that this is another myth which has its root in the "natural zodiac", set of symbols based on fixed annual lifecycle events...

In this case the unicorn symbol is derived from the natural reproductive cycle of horses. 

The natural breeding season of horses typically begins around mid-April and finishes around mid September...It is characterised by violent stallion fights...

The beginning of the horse mating season coincided with the beginning of the sailing season in the Eastern Mediterranean, which is probably why the Greek sea god Poseidon to whom then sailors prayed for calm seas, was also "god of horses" who was "worshiped as a stallion". You can read more about this in my post "Trojan horse"...

So obviously, the horse mating season is the time when stallions get "horny" 🙂 Unicorn horn is described as "being cubit and a half (700 mm, 28 inches) in length". 

Pic: erect horse's penis sizes 🙂 (sorry)

The virgin, which calms the unicorn 🙂 is not an euphemism for bestial sex...It just means that the natural horse mating season ends in Virgo 23 Aug–23 Sep...Which is the time when unicorns (🙂 ) disappear. 

Until next summer...

But maybe this is just me reading into things...

Oh I completely forgot to say that the Unicorn is the symbol of the sun, sunny part of the year, from spring equinox to autumn equinox. Mares fertility is tuned to day length, which means they are most fertile around summer solstice...When stallions are horniest 🙂  too...

Oh, and the origin of the Unicorn legend can be found in the mistranslation of the Hebrew legend of Re'em...Cause Re'em in the end turned out to be a wild bull, hot a horse...I talked about this in my post "Re'em"...