On Unicorns

Last week I ranted a bit about how unicorns have horns, and do not have wings. I feel strongly about this. Both Maya and Suzanne mentioned the term ‘alicorn’ which I had never heard before, but which I like a lot more than lumping a singular horse god (Pegasus) into a mythical species. It would be like saying ‘a Poseidon’ is a species, or ‘a Zeus’. Anyway, I looked up alicorn, and found these admittedly pretty yet historically problematic examples. I’m working on opening my mind a smidge.

I know, I said historically problematic about a mythical creature. I’m ridiculous. I love this statue, the ‘alicorn’ is beautiful and is making me think, hmmm…what if Pegasus fell in love with a unicorn and they had a baby? The caption, however, is stupid. See Pegasus = god, NOT SPECIES, above.

Winged unicorn sounds better, right? I like this one, very steam punk, and also weird. Where are the hind quarters?

Did you know that a unicorn’s horn is also called an alicorn? I did not. I do remember reading in a novel once that the horn is supposed to have medicinal properties.

Apparently, winged unicorns are not just the product of My Little Pony, and have their own mythology. From Wikipedia:

“Ancient Achaemenid Assyrian seals depict winged unicorns and winged bulls as representing evil, but winged unicorns can also represent light.

Irish poet W. B. Yeats wrote of imagining a winged beast that he associated with ecstatic destruction. The beast took the form of a winged unicorn in his 1907 play The Unicorn from the Stars and later that of the rough beast slouching towards Bethlehem in his poem The Second Coming.”

I haven’t read much Yeats, maybe I need to rectify that. I did really enjoy the class I took in Greek and Roman mythology in college, maybe that’s why I get so hepped up about Pegasus.

I’m curious though…are there ridiculous things that you get hepped up about? Let’s discuss. Make me feel better.