Carpe Diem #821 Monoceros (Unicorn)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We are running towards the end of our "space odyssey" and than we will celebrate our third anniversary. I have the prompt-list ready and I think it will become a wonderful and festive month, next October. Tom D'Evelyn has written a wonderful essay for us and Michael Dylan Welch has emailed me a wonderful series of haiku to choose from. As you know Michael will be our featured haiku-poet. I have contacted Cor van de Heuvel with the question if he would like to be our second featured haiku poet in our celebration month ... I haven't heard from him yet, but I am patient and I will see how this will turn out. Of course I have an escape ...

Today we are going to visit a constellation which I really didn't know and I am looking forward myself to the mythology of this constellation. Today we will visit Monoceros (Unicorn), a constellation with the image of a mythical creature, the Unicorn.

Credits: Monoceros (Unicorn)

The Unicorn a mythical creature, which I know of through the Harry Potter movies and the TV-series Merlin (about King Arthur). Is a wonderful creature and it's a shame that this creature is just a myth. Let us take a look at it's mythology ... if there is any ... Monoceros was created by Petrus Plancius (a Dutch astronomer and cartographer) and there was no mythology hidden behind it, but there are descriptions of unicorns which I love to share here with you.

The unicorn is a legendary animal that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. The unicorn was depicted in ancient seals of the Indus Valley Civilization and was mentioned by the ancient Greeks in accounts of natural history by various writers, including Ctesias, Strabo, Pliny the Younger, and Aelian. The Bible also describes an animal, the re'em, which some translations have erroneously rendered with the word unicorn.

In European folklore, the unicorn is often depicted as a white horse-like or goat-like animal with a long horn and cloven hooves (sometimes a goat's beard). In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, it was commonly described as an extremely wild woodland creature, a symbol of purity and grace, which could only be captured by a virgin. In the encyclopedias its horn was said to have the power to render poisoned water potable and to heal sickness. In medieval and Renaissance times, the tusk of the narwhal was sometimes sold as unicorn horn.

Credits: Monoceros (Unicorn) as it can be seen by the naked eye

Well ... this was another beautiful discovery among the stars and we are going further with our space odyssey as we will encounter Octans (Octant) tomorrow. For now ... I hope this episode will inspire you to write an all new haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form.

magical beauty

unicorn gallops through the woods

lost virginity

© Chèvrefeuille

A little bit erotic maybe, but this is what came up as I was contemplating about the Unicorn and its story as written above.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until September 21st at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our next episode, Octans (Octant), later on. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form here at our Haiku Kai.