The unicorn in the Byzantine imaginary
- Daniel Oltean
- 2 days ago
- 9 min read
Human imagination builds its most beautiful sandcastles on realities it cannot verify. This is the case with the legend of the unicorn, which centers on a fabulous animal everyone has imagined in their own way. Over time, the unicorn transformed from a rhinoceros-like creature into a diaphanous horse with an enormous horn on its head. The Byzantines never doubted the existence of this being. The repeated mention of the unicorn in the Greek version of the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms, reinforced this conviction. They considered the unicorn either a terrifying creature that, like death, constantly threatens human life, or a very powerful and pure animal, comparable to Christ, which only the intercession of a virgin can capture. Several Byzantine artists drew inspiration from this multifaceted legend to decorate the religious books of their time.
The evil power of the unicorn
The unicorn first appears in Greek texts with Ctesias (5th-4th c. BC), physician at the court of the Persian king Artaxerxes II (404-358 BC). In his description of India, Ctesias likely confuses the unicorn with the rhinoceros and considers it a kind of wild ass with a beautiful horn on its head. According to him, the unicorn is not easily caught, but fights to the death; its horn possesses thaumaturgical properties.:
Ctesias says that in India, there are wild asses as large as horses and even larger; they have white bodies, purple heads, and dark blue eyes. This animal has a horn in the middle of its forehead; it measures a cubit. […] Those who have drunk from these horns (for they are used as drinking vessels) are said to be immune to convulsions and the high sickness, and even poisons cannot harm them. [1]
The confusion between the unicorn and the rhinoceros or some other very powerful animal persisted throughout Antiquity. Furthermore, the unicorn’s appearance became even more imprecise due to its repeated mention in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. In the Septuagint, the term monokeros (μονόκερως), meaning “one-horned animal,” replaced the Hebrew word re’em, which normally meant “wild ox” or “buffalo.” Thus artificially introduced into everyday Christian language, the unicorn was imagined in various, often contradictory, ways.
The oldest representation of the unicorn closely resembles the wild nature of the rhinoceros. Because of its power, the unicorn is compared to the lion, with which it is paralleled in Psalm 21, 22: Save me from the mouth of the lion, deliver my humility from the horns of the unicorns (σῶσόν με ἐκ στόματος λέοντος καὶ ἀπὸ κεράτων μονοκερώτων τὴν ταπείνωσίν μου). According to the Alexander Romance, a work that blends historical facts and fantastical tales about the emperor Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), the unicorn is larger than an elephant and capable of killing twenty-six men with a single blow. According to a hagiographic text dedicated to Makarios the Roman, a saint celebrated on October 23 (BHG 1104-1005i), three monks on a journey to the terrestrial Paradise encounter unicorns and other fantastic animals at the ends of the earth. [2]
The destructive power of this ferocious animal led Christian commentators to consider the unicorn a symbol of evil. According to Eusebius of Caesarea, unicorns are adversaries of God, since they oppose the righteous. According to Augustine, unicorns symbolize the darkness of this world and the pride that leads humankind to make bad choices. For Euthymios Zigabenos (11th-12th c.), unicorns represent the Jews, the adversaries of Christians. According to a short protective prayer attributed to Christ on the cross, included in a 6th/7th-century Coptic manuscript (London, British Library Or. 6796(4) + 6796), the unicorn even became the guardian of the afterlife. Surprised to find itself powerless before the crucified Christ, the unicorn learns His true nature and flees, defeated, from Him. [3]
The parable of the man pursued by the unicorn
This negative interpretation of the unicorn reached its peak in an apologue that enjoyed great popularity in the Byzantine world from the 10th/11th century onward: the parable of the man pursued by the unicorn. According to the Life of Barlaam and Josaphat (BHG 224), a hagiographic text that includes the biography of Prince Siddhartha Gautama, better known as the Buddha, the unicorn is a symbol of death that constantly threatens human life. Pursued by the furious unicorn, the man falls into a pit, a symbol of the world, at the bottom of which lies a dragon, a symbol of hell. The man manages to cling to a tree, a symbol of life, but its roots are continually gnawed by two mice, one white and the other black, symbols of day and night. Four snakes, representing the four elements of nature, also torment the unfortunate man. Despite this desperate situation, the man is content with the few drops of honey that drip from the tree branches, symbols of worldly delights that seduce him and lead him to neglect his salvation. [4]
The fable originated in the East, where it has long been known. An almost identical story is found in the Mahabharata (III, §5-6) (c. 3rd c. BCE-3rd c. CE), but it is a terrifying six-faced, twelve-footed elephant that threatens the man, not a unicorn. The replacement of the elephant with the unicorn occurred in the 10th/11th century on Mount Athos, during the translation of the Life of Barlaam and Josaphat from Georgian into Greek. [5]
This Eastern origin of the fable did not prevent Byzantine artists from depicting it in numerous manuscripts. It even found its place in luxury Psalters produced in Constantinople, such as the Theodore Psalter (London, BL Add. 19352, AD 1066) and the Barberini Psalter (Vatican, BAV Barb. Gr. 372, 11th c.). The parable was chosen to illustrate the verse “Man is like vanity; his days are like a passing shadow” (Ps. 143:4). [6]
The unicorn and the virgin
In contrast to this image of a frightening, evil being, the unicorn has also become a symbol of absolute power, thereby symbolizing the power of God. Indeed, according to the book of Numbers (Num. 23:22), “it was God who brought them out of Egypt; his glory is like that of the unicorn” (Θεὸς ὁ ἐξαγαγὼν αὐτοὺς ἐξ Αἰγύπτου· ὡς δόξα μονοκέρωτος αὐτῷ). According to Origen and Basil the Great, the unicorn’s single horn would therefore indicate the one God, while the unicorn’s strength would symbolize the power of Christ, given to the chosen people. For Eusebius of Caesarea, the verses “The Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon, he makes them jump like the young bull of Lebanon and the beloved son of unicorns” (Ps. 28:5-6, συντρίψει Κύριος τὰς κέδρους τοῦ Λιβάνου καὶ λεπτυνεῖ αὐτὰς ὡς τὸν μόσχον τὸν Λίβανον καὶ ὁ ἠγαπημένος ὡς υἱὸς μονοκερώτων) can only speak of Jerusalem (the young bull) and the beloved Son (the son of unicorns). Other authors, such as Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and John Chrysostom, interpreted the unicorn as a symbol of the cross of Christ, since the cross’s arms are comparable to the horns of the unicorns. Finally, according to Athanasius of Alexandria, Cyril of Alexandria, and Theodoret of Cyrrhus, the unicorn symbolizes the holy patriarchs, the prophets, the apostles, and even the entire Christian people. [7]
The favorable interpretation of biblical texts and the parallel drawn between Christ and the unicorn led to another literary borrowing. Around the 3rd/4th century, in a work entitled Physiologos, i.e., “he who studies nature,” an anonymous author added to this symbolism the legend of the virgin who alone could capture the unicorn. The virgin thus foreshadows the Virgin Mary, since the unicorn prefigures Christ himself:
A hunter cannot get near it because the unicorn is very strong and it has one horn in the middle of its head. How is it hunted? They place a pure virgin before it, and it goes to her bosom, and the virgin suckles the animal and takes it to the palace, to the king. […] The animal refers to the person of the Savior. “He raised a horn in the house of David” (Luke 1:69), our father, and he became a horn of salvation for us. Angels and powers were not able to hold him, but he tabernacled in the womb of the true, pure virgin Mary. [8]
The legend of the virgin used as bait and the beast brought to the royal palace originates, once again, in the East. It has undergone several transformations, as initially it was a courtesan, not a virgin, who could capture the unicorn. The oldest version of the story is found in Sumerian mythology and tells of Enkidu, who, before becoming the friend of King Gilgamesh (3rd millennium BC), lived in the wild and ate like an animal. He was said to have been born to a gazelle and a wild ass. To bring Enkidu to his court, Gilgamesh sent a courtesan who seduced him with her charms. [9]
This first version of the legend serves as a source for the texts of the Ramayana (ca. 5th c. BC-3rd c. CE) and the Mahabharata, where a doe or antelope, impregnated by the semen of a holy ascetic, gives birth to a human being with a horn on his head. The child is thus named Rishyasringa, meaning “the doe-horned sage.” Upon reaching maturity, Rishyasringa is tricked by a courtesan into bringing him from the forest to the royal court, where he marries the king’s daughter. In one of the Buddhist versions of the text, included in the Mahavastu (2nd-4th c.), the young man is called Ekasringa, meaning “the one-horned sage,” and is captured not by a courtesan, but by a virgin, Nalini, the king’s daughter. [10]
Through the Physiologos, this oriental story entered the Byzantine imaginary. It is depicted in the same two luxury Psalters, in a scene where a unicorn approaches a virgin and places its foot on her knees. It serves as an illustration of the verse: “My horn shall be lifted up like that of the unicorn” (Ps. 91:11: ὑψωθήσεται ὡς μονοκέρωτος τὸ κέρας μου). On the other hand, in the manuscript Mount Athos, Pantocrator 61 (9th c.), the image is related to Psalm 77:69: “And he built his sanctuary like that of the unicorns on the earth which he founded forever” (καὶ ᾠκοδόμησεν ὡς μονοκέρωτος τὸ ἁγίασμα αὐτοῦ, ἐν τῇ γῇ ἐθεμελίωσεν αὐτὴν εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα). [11]
Ultimately, what remains somewhat puzzling is the Byzantines’ common perception of the unicorn. Did it symbolize death, as in the parable of the man driven out by the unicorn, or Christ, as in the legend of the virgin who captures the unicorn? The simultaneous presence of both scenes in the same Psalters suggests a freedom of choice reserved for the readers. On the other hand, one notices how easily Eastern legends found their place in the Byzantine imaginary; it seems that theology was defeated by legend, to borrow an expression from Jacques Le Goff. [12] Indeed, various symbols and allegories are easy to construct when they are based on inconsistent realities. This is the case with the unicorn, an imaginary symbol that never existed in reality.
[1] Photios, Bibliothèque, §72 (Ctésias), ed. and trans. R. Henry, vol. 1, Paris, 1959, p. 143-144.
[2] The Greek Alexander Romance, trans. R. Stoneman, London, 1991, p. 184 (§3.17); S. Papaioannou (ed. and trans.), Life of Makarios the Roman, in Saints at the Limits: Seven Byzantine Popular Legends (Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, 78), Cambridge (MA), 2023, p. 86‑87 (§10).
[3] See M.-T. Canivet – P. Canivet, La licorne dans les mosaïques de Huarte d’Apamène (Syrie), IVe‑Ve s., in Byzantion, 49 (1979), p. 57-87; J. Beal, The Unicorn as a Symbol for Christ in the Middle Ages, in Eadem (ed.), Illuminating Jesus in the Middle Ages (Commentaria, 12), Leiden, 2019, p. 154-188; J. E. Sanzo, The Innovative Use of Biblical Traditions for Ritual Power: The Crucifixion of Jesus on a Coptic Exorcistic Spell (Brit. Lib. Or. 6796[4], 6796) as a Test Case, in Archiv für Religionsgeschichte, 16 (2014), p. 67–98; R. Bélanger Sarrazin, Prayer of Christ From the Cross, e‑Clavis: Christian Apocrypha, https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/prayer-of-christ-from-the-cross.
[4] John Damascene, Barlaam and Ioasaph, trans. G. R. Woodward – H. Mattingly (Loeb Classical Library, 34), Cambridge (MA), 1967 (1914), p. 187-191 (§12). The parable is also included in Eugene of Sicily’s (12th c.) version of the work Stephanites and Ichnelates, a Greek translation from Arabic of Kalila and Dimna or The Fables of Bidpai (8th c.), containing fables of Indian origin. (Panchatantra, Mahabharata, etc.), see M. D. Lauxtermann, Unicorn or No Unicorn: Stephanites and Ichnelates, Prol. 3.10, in L. Silvano et al. (ed.), Virtute vir tutus: Studi di letteratura greca, bizantina e umanistica offerti a Enrico V. Maltese, Ghent, 2023, p. 409-428.
[5] See A. Mahé – J.-P. Mahé (trans.), La sagesse de Balahvar. Une vie christianisée du Bouddha, Paris, 1993, p. 76-77 (Georgian short version); M. Toumpouri, L’homme chassé par la licorne : de l’Inde au Mont-Athos, in G. Ducœur (ed.), Autour de Bāmiyān. De la Bactriane hellénisée à l’Inde bouddhique, Paris, 2012, p. 425-444. The parable included in Stephanites and Ichnelates also mentions a unicorne, even though it is an elephant in Kalila and Dimna.
[6] Theodore Psalter, f. 182v; Barberini Psalter, f. 237v. See C. J. Hilsdale, Worldliness in Byzantium and Beyond: Reassessing the Visual Networks of Barlaam and Ioasaph, in C. Normore – C. Symes (ed.), Reassessing the Global Turn in Medieval Art History, Amsterdam, 2018, p. 57-96; https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Barb.gr.372.
[7] Canivet – Canivet, La licorne, p. 81-87; J. Beal, The Unicorn, p. 156-163.
[8] Physiologos, §22, trans. R. M. Grant, Early Christians and Animals, London, 1999, p. 62.
[9] A. R. George, The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic, Oxford, 2003, vol. 1, p. 544-562; 650-651 (§1‑2; 8).
[10] Ramayana, I, 8-10; Mahabharata, III, §110-113; The Mahavastu, trans. J. J. Jones, London, 1956, vol. 3, p. 138-147, https://archive.org/details/sacredbooksofbud19londuoft/sacredbooksofbud19londuoft/page/138. See T. Abusch, The Tale of the Wild Man and the Courtesan in India and Mesopotamia: The Seductions of Rśyaśrnga in the Mahābhārata and Enkidu in the Epic of Gilgamesh, in M. J. Geller (ed.), Melammu: The Ancient World in an Age of Globalization (Melammu Symposia, 6), Berlin, 2014, p. 69-109; M. Wiedemann, La femme et la licorne, in M.‑L. Paoli (ed.), L’Imaginaire au féminin : du liminal à l’animal…, Bordeaux, 2018, p. 271‑308, https://books.openedition.org/pub/13276.
[11] Theodore Psalter, f. 124v; Barberini Psalter, f. 160r; Mont Athos, Pantocrator 61, f. 109v. See also Chludov Psalter, Moscow, State Historical Museum Gr. 129-d (9th c.), f. 93v (Ps. 91:11); C. Stephen-Kaissis, ‘Well Speaks the Physiologus’: The Image of the Virgin and Unicorn in the Ninth-Century Byzantine Marginal Psalters and Their Relation to the Smyrna Physiologus (preprint), https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/volltexte/2023/5698.
[12] J. Le Goff, Héros et merveilles du Moyen Âge, Paris, 2005, p. 159.
