The most striking difference between ancient and modern unicorns is the horn itself. Having no exposure to such an animal, and with only the words “asses” and “horses” to serve as a guide, subsequent ancient and medieval scholars struggled for centuries to describe this seemingly fantastical beast.Ĭonsequently, the unicorns depicted in early bestiaries are patchwork creatures - curious combinations of lions, goats, and deer - always vaguely equine in nature, but never the gleaming white horse we’ve come to know. The creature described by Ctesias, which the Greeks came to know as monoceros (one-horned) and which later the Romans called unicornus, was most likely an Indian rhinoceros. They say that whoever drinks from the horn (which they fashion into cups) is immune to seizures and the holy sickness and suffers no effects from poison.” The tip of the horn is sharp and crimson in color while the rest in the middle is black. The bottom part of the horn for as much as two palms towards the brow is bright white. Among the latter is an account of the “wild asses in India the size of horses and even bigger.” Ctesias writes that these animals “have a horn in the middle of their brow one and a half cubits in length. The resulting work, Indica, was an odd compilation of faithfully recorded descriptions of contemporary Indian beliefs and customs, and fanciful portraits of astonishing creatures. Captivated by the accounts he heard of the strange beasts and curious peoples who inhabited the land we now call India, Ctesias took it upon himself to record these wonders for audiences back home. In the 4th Century BCE, Greek physician Ctesias was travelling through Persia when he heard tales of an exotic land beyond the Indus River. To uncover the origins of the unicorn myth, we have to travel back to Ancient Greece. How did the enlarged canine of an isolated species of arctic whale come to be so fundamentally associated with a magical horned horse? Even for kids who recognize the tusk for what it is, the thrill of holding a “real” unicorn horn is palpable.and rather curious. It’s perhaps this aura of mystery that makes the narwhal the perfect alter ego of one of the most popular mythical creatures: the unicorn. Gathering information about these creatures, never mind even locating them, has always been a tricky business since they spend their lives hidden away in deep, dark arctic seas under thick layers of ice.

Of all whales, the narwhal in particular has always been rather mysterious. The purpose of these elongated teeth is not definitively known, and is still hotly debated among the scientists who study these small arctic whales. This tusk is actually a tooth, which most male (and very rarely female) narwhals grow out of the front of their heads. Of the many items we bring - antique compasses, battle-worn harpoons, glittering deck prisms, and fear-inspiring megalodon teeth - few are as popular as a small, delicately spiraled segment of whalebone: the very tip of a narwhal tusk. Our educators pack up some of the museum’s most interesting artifacts and travel to share them with kids from Queens to Riverhead. Every year, the Whaling Museum conducts outreach programs in schools and libraries across Long Island.

Whale with horn