Musar zu Daniel 8:5

The exile under the Greeks who were known as קרן, horn, was also called similarly, as we know from Daniel 8,5: והצפיר קרן חזות בעיניו, "And the he-goat had a conspicuous horn between its eyes." This was an allusion to the victories of Alexander the Great. The Greeks darkened the eyes of Israel and wanted to deprive it of any vestige of holiness, even of the reduced level of holiness Israel still possessed and symbolized by the ox's single horn as described on page 340. The Greeks demanded that the Jews inscribe on the horn of their oxen that they had dissociated themselves from the G–d of Israel. It was therefore appropriate that when the Hasmoneans defeated the Greeks they should find a cruse of uncontaminated oil. Since they did not institute the rule of the dynasty of David, however, they found a פך, cruse, which was sealed by the seal of the High Priest instead of a קרן, horn.