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Unicorn Horns to Prevent Poisoning The first recorded reference to unicorns comes from Ctesias, who was writing about them in his collection of travel journals. He lives in the 5th century BC, and wrote a total of 23 books recording life and people in India, Persia, and Asia. His work was printed in direct opposition to Herodotus. In 1973, Barbara Silverberg wrote about Ctesias' accounts of the unicorn, saying that since ancient times physicians attributed to the unicorn horn magical properties, including being a certain cure for poison. Screen capture from a page of Barbara Silverbeg's book, Phoenix feathers : a collection of mythical monsters, where she describes Ctesias' unicorn accounts, and then below the first paragraph, she quotes from Ctesias' publication "On Certain Wild Asses" where he writes about unicorns and their properties, including "protection against deadly poison" | Source | Accessed March 8, 2024 John Watson M'Crindle (published in 1886) writes about Ctesias' unicorn publication, saying that Ctesias credited India with "producing" unicorn (being native to India was Ctesias' contention) | Interestingly, even in commenting on Ctesias' work, M'Crindle says that "The horn of the unicorn...is an antidote against evil." | Source M'Crindle's account of unicorns from Ctesias' accounts, he talks about having never seen a unicorn, but did see statues of it in Ethiopia. He goes on to suggest that the animal Ctesias' was writing about must not be as described. He specifically says that he believes the animal Ctesias saw has to be seperated from Persepolis' unicorn (see image below; Persepolis was another source for unicorn information.) M'Crindle goes on to talk about "scripture" that refers to unicorns, talking about those references as "an in the blessings of Balaam wherewith he blessed Israel" going on to quote that scripture as "God led him out of Egypt even as the glory of the unicorn." That's a misquote by the author. Balaam blesses Israel in Numbers 13-25 of the Bible. The 1599 Geneva Bible recounts the reference to unicorn as: "God brought him out of Egypt: his strength shall be as an unicorn: he shall eat the nations his enemies, and bruise their bones, and shoot them through with his arrows." (Numbers 24:8, 1599 Geneva Bible, Source) The Unicorn Purifies the Water with Its Horn by Jean Duvet, c. 1555/1561, National Gallery of Art, Public Domain, Source Unicorn horns were valued in the Renaissance by being able to detect poison by sweating and trembling whenever the unicorn horn was in the presence of poison. The monarch would wave the horn slowly over the royal table or even dip it into the food to see if it started to shake or sweat. Some thought the unicorn horn could also render the poison harmless, not just detect it. Screen captures from the Issues of the Exchequer During the Reign of James I (London, 1836), by Frederick Devon (pages 305-306 of the original, and pages 339-340 of the digital record) | This record shows where James I gave his wife, Anne...
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