CONTENT WARNING: We will be discussing snakes and similar slithery creatures in this episode, as well as dubious consent through legends and myths.
Dragons and Unicorns and Virgins, oh my! Ever wonder why virgins keep getting tied to mythical beasts? don't worry, Jackie's got you.
Questions/comments/concerns/recommendations? Email us at ragingromantics@nopl.org!
Unicorn images!
- Unicorn tapestries
- Elasmotherium, 1878 reconstruction
- Elasmotherium reconstruction on X
- Broken horn unicorn
- Unicorn and maiden
Other episodes to listen to:
Books/texts we mention:
- Moby Dick by Herman Melville
- The Iliad (Jackie recommends Emily Wilson's translation)
- The Physiologus
- Historia Naturalis (Pliny the Elder)
- Etymologies (Isidore of Seville)
- Expositions on the Book of Psalms (Augustine, transl. 1845)
- King James translation of The Bible
- Golden Legend (Legenda Aurea)
- Ctesias' Indica
- The Bridge Ladies by Betsy Lerner
- King of Battle and Blood / Queen of Myth and Monsters by Scarlett St. Clair
Sources:
- "Dragon" (Medieval Bestiary)
- "Unicorn" (ibid.)
- “In a Word: Of Serpents, Snakes, and Sobriquets” (Hollandbeck, 2023)
- “Separating Myth from Legend about the Medieval Dragon” (Diaz, 2018)
- “Understanding the Book of Revelation” (White, 2014)
- “Snake to Monster: Conrad Gessner’s Schlangenbuch and the Evolution of the Dragon in the Literature of Natural History.” (Senter, Phil, et al., 2016)
- "Exposition on Psalm 148" (Newadvent.org, 2023)
- "Enter the Dragon: Happy St Margaret's Day!" (British Library, 2014)
- "Chapter 8 The Unicorn as a Symbol for Christ in the Middle Ages" (Beal, 2018)
- “Qilin” (britannica.com)
- “Zevachim 113b ~ On the Identity of the Re'em" (Talmudology.com, 2018)
- “The Hunt of the Unicorn Tapestries Depict a “Virgin-Capture Legend” (Morgan, 2021)
- “The Virgin Captures Myth in the hunt of the unicorn during the middle ages” (Frederici, 2021)
- “Cult of the Virgin Mary” (Intriguing History, 2016)
Activity