Word: unicorns
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...translation error, when Hebrew scripture was rendered into Greek, added to the allure of the creature now known as the unicorn. The wild ox, a now-extinct creature rendered in bas relief profiles with one horn, was translated in Greek as monokeros or one-horned. In the Latin bible of the Christian world that became unicornos and "unicorn" by the time the English translators of King James got to work. And so, God impresses His power upon Job by saying, "Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with...
...creature, long believed to have mystical powers - Ctesias wrote about people grinding its horn down to mix into a restorative elixir - now took on greater symbolic powers too. The unicorn both came to represent Christ, and also began to represent purity and chastity. The idea that unicorns could only be tamed by virgins became a widely held belief, and images of unicorns resting their heads in chaste womens laps, with not so subtle sexual undertones, began to appear in artwork. Likely for similar reasons of imagery and historical belief in its purity and healing powers, over time the unicorn...
...While unicorn legend evolved in the West, in the Far East, similar creatures developed in mythology. The Japanese unicorn, or kirin (after which the beer is named) is a fierce creature able to root out criminals, instantly punishing them by piercing them through the heart with its horn. In China, the similarly named qilin had quite a different disposition. It harms no creature, and its presence is considered a good omen. Reportedly, a qilin appeared to Confucius' mother before he was born...
...until Wednesday, unicorns have seldom been spotted, theories vary wildly, but one of the most interesting falls squarely on Noah's shoulders. Legend holds that when Noah had to pack up the Ark in the face of the flood, the unicorns were just too slow getting to the boat (either that, or they were so proud that they were taking up more than their fair share of space, and Noah had to kick them off). As the Irish Rovers sing in "The Unicorn": "Close the door because the rain is falling/ And we just can't wait for no unicorns...
...course, there are optimists who think that somehow the unicorns managed to survive, morphing, slowly over the years into the bizarre but documented flesh-and-blood narwhal, a member of the porpoise and whale family that does indeed have a single, twisty tooth which it uses for mating and to pick holes through the ice. Indeed, perhaps that's what became of the unicorns that never made it onto the ark. They took to the sea. Throughtout the centuries, the narwahl's long, corkscrewing tooth was sold as a unicorn's horn, proof that the most elusive of creatures existed...