How Unicorns Die...

Snatched from another blog, but it makes great reading....

Unicorns do not die naturally. They are the supreme lords of all beasts so they are prey to none. They cannot be captured and held against their wills. They can only be killed, and only by Man. Why would anyone wish to kill so noble and precious a creature? The answer is Greed, of course. Kings throughout history have coveted the Unicorn’s Horn; from it, they made drinking cups that neutralized assassins’ poisons. Magicians pay heavily for Unicorn Horn, hair, and even blood to use in their rituals. “Heroes” love to hang the heads of Unicorns over their mantels and brag about how they fought and slew the most ferocious beast of all. But no man can kill a Unicorn in fair combat. He who would kill a Unicorn must enlist the aid of a woman, and not just any woman. Unicorns, purest of all beasts, are irresistibly drawn to Purity. To ensnare a Unicorn, men suborn a virgin woman of impeccable reputation if not character. Usually, money is what induces her to aid and abet the most of horrible of crimes. The Lady is set alone in a place known to be frequented by a Unicorn. She hums and sings, plays the lute. The Unicorn hears and smells her, tastes her upon the air. Drawn irresistibly to her apparent purity, the Unicorn comes to her and lays its head in her lap, gaze locked adoringly upon her angelic face… like a guy with a bad case of “Stripper-love”. The Maiden And The Unicorn, fresco by Dominico Zampieri, 1602 CE. Part of the “The Loves of the Gods” series of frescoes adorning the Palazzo Farnese, now the French embassy in Rome. While the Unicorn is distracted by the Lady, perhaps even falling into peaceful sleep in her lap, men come and stab it with spears and swords. Detail from one of the Unicorn Tapestries in the Cloisters Gallery of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Enraged, the Unicorn springs up and fights back, slaying many men and dogs. It bursts free to run away, but it is weakened and the men follow hotly. They catch the Unicorn in its blood-soaked weariness and slay it. Then they bring it home and butcher it for its Horn and other magical parts. Even more tragic than the irreversible loss of a Unicorn is the fact that the Unicorn knows it will be slain before it even lays eyes upon the Lady! The Unicorn, like all of its kind, knows all that has ever happened including the earlier killings of Unicorns. Yet when the Unicorn catches the first faint scent and sound of the Lady it goes to its doom, irresistibly drawn by her apparent purity that calls overpoweringly to its own. Loneliness is the Unicorn’s fatal vulnerability. The solitary Unicorn answers that which calls to its own purity, though it knows that final Death lies in the Lady’s soft, welcoming lap. The Unicorn is undone by Desire not to be alone. The wisest of beasts and Men has walked knowingly to its doom over and over again throughout eternity. One wonders when we will learn.