History of All Cloven-Hoofed Quadrupeds

Lib. 17.

...him who is prepared to retaliate for an injury. Indeed, to indicate this, certain eminent men have used horns instead of crests, as if for attacking and terrifying. Hence Pyrrhus used them, as Plutarch records: He was recognized by his remarkable crest and by his goat-like horns. Of Philip, King of the Macedonians, Livy says: Carried into a tree by the charge of his horse, he broke off one horn of his helmet against a protruding branch. Silius says of a certain African:
—>The fillet hanging from the horned helmet.<—

Lib. 12.

And likewise in Virgil:
—>Both sword and shield, and the red horns of the crest.<—

Lib. 3.

Perhaps, however, with another intention, says Lipsius in Analecta, book 3, On the Roman Militia, dialogue five, even the feathered crests themselves are understood to be cut and divided, as if into horns. Suidas has such a thing: The ancients called hair or manes 'horns.' But how frequent are the horns on our own helmets! The same were once in daily use among the Gauls; Diodorus is witness: They place brass helmets on their heads which have large protrusions and peaks, and present a magnificent appearance to onlookers. For to some, natural horns are attached; to others, the fashioned likenesses of birds or quadruped animals are fixed. Similarly, they also adorned their helmets with the gaping mouths of animals. Statius:
—>With the mouths of wild beasts,<—
—>And with a gaping maw they make their helmets horrific.<—

What a horn is in sacred matters. Homil. on Psalm 28. In comment. on Isaiah ch. 5. Why horns are on the head. 2. de part. a. 3. Why horns are pointed. Lib. 30. 1. Difference of horns. From whence 'horn' is named.

A horn is therefore accepted in Sacred Scripture for strength and fortitude, as well as for a kingdom; and on account of its loftiness and liberty, as St. Basil says, it is taken in a positive sense, and in many places of holy writ we find it used for glory. The same Basil, moreover, recognizes another utility in the horns of animals, saying that they provide beauty and ornament to the body: The horn (he says) is more eminent and more solid than the rest of the body: it simultaneously brings ornament to the head, and is at the same time a ready armor for repelling injuries. But why nature has placed them in a high part of the body, namely on the crown of the head, Aristotle demonstrates to us in these words. He rightly entrusted the horns to the head, and not as Aesop’s Momus found fault, that the bull does not carry horns on its shoulders, whence it might be able to strike more vehemently, but on the head, the weakest part of the body. For that Momus did not perceive these things with a sharp wit. For if horns were possessed in any other part, they would be a weight in vain, useful in nothing, and would even hinder many duties; thus, fixed to the shoulders, they would hold a location altogether unsuitable. For not only from where strokes may be made more vehemently must be considered, but also from where they may be made more remotely; and so, since they lack hands, and can carry them attached neither to the lowest parts of the feet, nor to the knees (for bending would be hindered), they must carry them on the head, just as has been established by nature. Furthermore, they can thus be carried most easily without any hindrance to the other motions of the body. But to return to the final cause of horns, so that such animals might be able to provoke and repel injuries, it was necessary for their horns to end in a solid point; and lest they be bent, nature made them of an almost bony substance at their very origin, as the same Philosopher said in the same place: For the rest they are to some extent hollow and are finally hardened at the point, since this is more convenient for striking; but lest the hollow part be weak where it is joined to the skin, a certain solid thing arising from the bones enters it and fills it entirely. For thus situated and compacted, they are held to be both most convenient for inflicting force and least troublesome for the remaining duties of life. This concerns the material itself from which horns are produced (I speak of the more proximate material), which is nothing other than a bony and nervous outgrowth. That it is bony he clearly taught in the same place, saying: The parts nearest to the bones are shown to be so even by touch, such as nails, claws, and hooves—both solid and cloven—horns, and the beaks of birds, all of which are attached to animals for the sake of protection. There is also a certain other final cause of horns; for as Caelius noted, some of the Greek Grammarians write that they are likewise found used for hair, since both are born in the same manner: and there is present, he says, also an etymology why they might think kerata [horns] is found for hair; for the name seems to be derived from there, ὅτι συνεχῶς κείρονται, that is, because they are continually shorn, whence of Paris in Homer, κέρ’ ἀγλαόν, they interpret as illustrious and beautiful with hair; and in Sophocles ὀρθόκερος φρίκη [upright-horned shudder] they understand for that which is ὀρθόθριξ [with hair standing on end], and κέρas βοος [horn of an ox] for ox bristles. There is indeed no small diversity of horns; since there is not the same color for all, nor the same figure, magnitude, or solidity, nor likewise the same number, nor the same placement in all. Again, in some they fall off, in others not at all. The color varies in some; in others it is simple: white, blackish, ashen, or yellowish. The figure is straight in some, as in the Oryx (for I speak of cloven-hoofed animals only, for otherwise such is also attributed to the Indian ass); in others (all the rest, if I am not mistaken), it is inflexed or curved, whence Varro thought 'horn' [cornu] was named from 'curvature' [curvitas]. Of these again two kinds exist; for some are only lightly reclined, while others are led around in a curve and as if into a circle. Again, some are smooth, some rough; some simple, some dispersed into branches; some thin, some thick; some wide, some narrow. The magnitude in some is small, in some middling, in others huge. And although...