Unicorn (English spelling)

Japanese: ユニコーン（英語表記）unicorn

Also called the unicorn. A legendary animal with a long horn on its forehead, resembling a horse or a lamb. Reliefs depicting its appearance have been found in Assyrian ruins, and it also appears in Indian and Chinese legends. The Greek naturalist Cnidus, who lived in the 4th century BCE, wrote that it was an actual animal in India, and that its horns had medicinal properties, but this is likely a false description. In Christianity, it is familiar as an animal that appears in the Bible, but this began when a type of two-horned beast called re'em in Hebrew was mistakenly translated as monokerōs (unicorn) in Greek during the translation of the Old Testament into Greek. This was linked to an Indian legend in which the beast could only be caught by a virgin, and it became associated with the Virgin Mary, and in the Middle Ages it was given various metaphorical interpretations.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

一角獣ともいう。額に1本の長い角をもち，馬あるいは小羊に似るとされる伝説上の動物。アッシリア遺跡からその姿を描いたレリーフが発見されており，インド，中国の説話にも現れる。前4世紀ギリシアの自然学者クニドスは，インドの実在動物としてその角の薬効などを書いているが，これはさいのことらしい。キリスト教では聖書に現れる動物として親しまれているが，これは旧約聖書のギリシア語への翻訳の際，ヘブライ語で re'emと呼ぶ二角獣の1種をギリシア語 monokerōs (一角獣) と誤訳したことに始る。これが，処女でなければこの獣を捕えることができないという，インド説話と結びついて，聖母マリアに関係づけられ，中世にはさまざまな比喩的解釈が行われた。

出典　ブリタニカ国際大百科事典小項目事典ブリタニカ国際大百科事典小項目事典について　情報

<<: Yunishigawa [Hot Spring] - Yunishigawa

>>: U2 Incident - The U-2 Incident