Pegasus:
DON'T
Reason: It has pink wings and its just un-like the real creature.
DO
Reason: It has wings, no horn and is not all pink and cartoon-y.
Unicorn:
DON'T
Reason: Unicorns do not have hearts tattooed on their butts, they do not have rainbow hair, and are not purple. DO
Reason: The unicorn has a horn, is a natural horse/unicorn color.
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UNICORN HISTORY:
The Unicorn history is a lot harder to pin down than the Pegasus history. One of the first written account of a Unicorn was a Greek historian, Ctesua circa 400 B.C. He described an "ass-like horned creature" that was thought to inhabit India. His unicorn was an animal with the head of the deer, the body of a horse, the tail of a lion, the feet of a goat, blue eyes and a horn that was white at the base, black in the middle and red at the tip was about 1 1/2 foot in length. Some people think the Unicorns and Rhinoceros are distantly related.
At the time of these writings the world was not as inhabited as it is today. Many old maps had great areas that read only ”here be dragons” to show that is was not explored. To the Romans and Greeks, stories of fabled animals such as elephants and giraffes were the stuff of fantasy. Now we know neither were fables. Many pictures of these animals found on pottery and in frescoes were more the product of the imagination of the artist, hearing verbal descriptions by travelers, than of reality.
Another theory is that the unicorn was invented to explain the appearance of a narwhal tooth. The narwhal is a small whale of the most northern seas. The male grows a single long tusk that can be up to 10 feet long and it twists in a spiral. The horn is actually quite beautiful and it is easy to imagine that the people of the north would trade these to travelers for great amounts of goods and may have made up stories to enhance their worth to gullible tourists. Much the same happens today to tourists in exotic places. The Vikings of Norway were known to trade in narwhal horn and kept the secret of where they came from for over 300 years, from the Middle Ages through to the 17th century. During these time the horn of the unicorn became extremely valuable and sought after as is was thought to cure any disease or ailment as well as neutralizing all poisons and purifying water. It was also thought that since the unicorn was a symbol of purity, and only a virgin could touch him, that the horn would prove the virginity of a noble bride. Some people fear unicorns because they believe if you are not a virgin they kill you. That is 100% FALSE. In France the custom was to carry a horn, or a cup made with unicorn horn, around the table and to touch all the food and drink to test it for poison. This ceremony continued at the court of the King until as late as 1789. There are written accounts of great amounts of money spent on powdered horn, as well as for pieces said to be unicorn horn. So prized was the fabled horn of the unicorn that Queen Elizabeth I in the 16th century paid 10,000 pounds for one, equivalent to the cost of an entire castle. It is still in the royal treasury today. The royal scepter in England is made from the rare tusk. In Japan, two crossed narwhal teeth adorn the entrance to the Korninkaku Palace. In Denmark multiple teeth comprise the frame of the Danish throne.
There are also tales of the unicorns perishing in the great flood. That would be hard, considering they were are their peak. Some unicorn-haters believe they were to selfish and cocky to get on the boat. I believe and have heard more often that the unicorns were to busy getting all the other animals to the boat that they couldn't get on themselves. I do not believe they perished and the great flood, or perished at all. How could he have perished in the flood and yet be considered a symbol of Christ and a real beast at the same time? Another theory is that he was able to swim behind the ark and so survived that catastrophe to become the icon seen in the many tapestries of Europe. For many people, the mere mention of the unicorn in the Bible was proof of its existence. As well, Sir John Mandeville penned “The Traveler's Tales” in which he told of many adventures taken by the traveler and wrote as if the unicorn was a real animal. This book was taken as truth for many years. Reports of unicorn sightings were written as late as 1673 ,they were often penned by monks and missionaries and so were believed to be true.
Now here's a question to ask yourself. Why do Christian's believe everything the bible says, or back then why they believed everything the monks said? I have nothing against Christians to be clear.
-Continued later-