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According
to medieval legend, the unicorn could be captured only by a virgin
girl, because his irresistible desire was to lay his horn in a maiden's
lap. While thus engaged, he was incapable of resisting capture.
(However, no unicorns were ever captured.)
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The
unicorn was a secret phallic consort of the virgin Mary, shown inside
her "enclosed garden" of virginity, in many examples of Christian
mystical art. At times he was identified with the Savior. A medieval
hymn called Christ "the wild wild unicorn whom the Virgin caught
and tamed."
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A
source of the unicorn myth may have been the Babylonian dragon-beast
made up of a horse like body with lion's forelegs, scales
a snakelike neck and a flat horned head with a single spike
growing from the center of the nose. One theory proposes that
the unicorn was originally the bull of spring, rearing up
and struggling with the lion of summer. Babylonian art showed
both animals in profile, so the bull appeared to have only
one horn. The British coat of arms still has "the lion and
the unicorn" contending in just such a manner.
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Explorers
thought they found the legendary unicorn in the African rhinoceros.
Because of the unicorn's phallic significance, powdered rhinoceros
horn became a highly popular "remedy" for impotence, and is
so used even today.
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