Where Did Unicorns Come From, or About Centaurs, Onagers, and Wild Donkeys 3302-JCODO-OG

When we imagine the Middle Ages, not only knights in shining armor, gardens of love, and magical potions come to mind, but also fantastic animal creatures. Basilisks, griffins, mermaids, manticores, amphisbenae, gorgons, and dragons filled the space of stories and iconographic structures. In the physiologuses, which in the Middle Ages served the function of encyclopedias, the unicorn frequently appears, described just as eagerly as crocodiles, lions, elephants, or whales. The Middle Ages developed the symbolic dimension of this hybrid creature, yet some stories about unicorns may have a certain basis in real observations. A journey into the world of sources on the history of unicorns reveals interesting intertwinings of knowledge and fantasy, as well as the intertwining of literature and art with natural knowledge. At the same time, we have the opportunity to look at contemporary representations of unicorns and centaurs in literature, painting, film, or computer games and to reflect on their mode of existence in these presentations.
Observing the presence of various kinds of monsters in culture, one can try to answer a few questions. What does the presence of monsters and wonderful creatures, even if only in the human head, day about us? What role do they play in our lives? Do we need miraculous creatures today? How did the strange monsters spread so widely and survive for millennia? What do unusual creatures say about the relationship between nature and culture, about knowledge about the world, about the relationship between humanities and natural science? What is the role of knowledge about unusual creatures in the rapidly since the late 1990s developing trend of environmental/ecological humanities, which is being built in the post-humanist perspective of critique of anthropocentrism, eurocentrism and geocentrism, emphasizing the need to create knowledge arising from the combination of humanities and social science with natural science and indigenous knowledge?