Winged unicorn

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A winged unicorn is a fictional horse with wings and the horn of a unicorn. This creature has no specific name, but is sometimes referred to using a portmanteau of pegasus and unicorn (either "pegacorn" or "unipeg"). In some literature and media, it has been referred to as an "alicorn", which is a historical word for the horn of a unicorn.[1]

Winged unicorns have been depicted in art. Ancient Achaemenid Assyrian seals bear depictions of winged unicorns and winged bulls as representations of evil.[2][3]

Irish poet W. B. Yeats wrote of imagining a winged beast that he associated with laughing, ecstatic destruction. The beast took the form of a winged unicorn in his 1907 play The Unicorn from the Stars and later that of the rough beast slouching towards Bethlehem in his poem The Second Coming.[4]

In the continuity of Hasbro's My Little Pony and its related media after 2010 (including its My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic television series), winged unicorns[note 1] play a role as ponies of royal status.

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Notes

  1. ↑ In the early episodes of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic television series, the species is not specifically named; for example, the sisters Celestia and Luna were referred as unicorns in first season's première episode "Friendship Is Magic - part 1" despite having wings.[5] However, an amulet with a pair of wings and a horned head of a horse is referred as the "Alicorn Amulet" in the third season's fifth episode "Magic Duel" (written by M. A. Larson),[6] and the species is explicitly named "alicorn" in its season finale "Magical Mystery Cure" (also written by Larson).[7]

References

  1. ↑ Shepard, Odell (1930). The Lore of the Unicorn. London: Unwin and Allen. ISBN 9781437508536.
  2. ↑ Brown, Robert (2004). The Unicorn: A Mythological Investigation. Kessinger Publishing. p. 18. ISBN 9780766185302.
  3. ↑ Von Der Osten, Hans Henning (June 1931). "The Ancient Seals from the Near East in the Metropolitan Museum: Old and Middle Persian Seals". The Art Bulletin 13 (2): 221–41. JSTOR 3050798.
  4. ↑ Ward, David (Spring 1982). "Yeats's Conflicts With His Audience, 1897-1917". ELH 49 (1): 155–6. JSTOR 2872885.
  5. ↑ Faust, Lauren. "Friendship Is Magic - part 1". My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Season 1. Hasbro Studios.
  6. ↑ Larson, M. A. "Magic Duel". My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Season 3. Hasbro Studios.
  7. ↑ Larson, M. A. "Magical Mystery Cure". My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Season 3. Hasbro Studios.