Monoceros

Monoceros · Unicorn — Legendary one-horned creature

The monoceros (μονόκερως) is the unicorn of ancient Greek and Roman literature — the name combining Greek 'mono' (one) and 'keros' (horn). It first appears in the 4th-century BCE Greek physician Ctesias's Indica (Indian travelogue), described as a wild ass living in India with a 50cm horn striped white, red, and black on its forehead, with cups made from the horn rendering drinkers immune to poison. Pliny's Natural History redescribes it as 'horse body, elephant feet, pig tail, with a 60cm black horn at center,' gradually transforming. As it spread to medieval Europe, it became the Latin 'unicornus' and evolved into the familiar white horse-like unicorn — though the monoceros is still sometimes distinguished as a more wild and fierce original form.