The earliest existing reference to a Unicorn is by a Greek physician named Ctesias. He lived aroud 416 BC., when he worked as a court physician for King Darius II of Persia and later Artaxerxes. He wrote a history of Persia, where he had been,and also a book called Indica, about India, because of all the stories he heard about it when he was in Persia. In it, he describes the unicorn:The Unicorn
"There are in India certian wild asses wich are as large as a horses and larger. Their bodies are white, their heads dark red,and their eyes are dark blue. They have a horn on the forehead about a foot and a half in length. The dust filled from this horn is administered in a potion as protection against deadly drugs and such. The base of the horn, for some two hands'-breadth above the brow,is pure white; the upper part is sharp and of a vivid crimson, and the remainder, or middle portion, is black."
At this point in time in timepeaple agree on a few things unicorns had a thorn in the middle of their foreheads, wich was soposed to prevent poisoning ,and epileptic seizures, omung other things. Rich and powerful peaple owned cups,supossed to have been carved by unicorn horns,which would nuetrlize any poisn they might drink. The unicorn is also supposed dipped its horn into a watering hole before drinking. In medeval times, peaple believed that snakes would poison watering holes, and all the other animals would wait until the unicorn came to clean the water.