The
Caduceus
In Greek mythology, heralds or messengers generally carried with them a
staff. Hermes, son of Zeus was messenger of the god’s to the
humans, and he carried one such herald’s staff called
kerykeion in Greek or caduceus in Latin. Hermes had a winged cap and
winged sandals. His herald’s staff is likewise winged. It is
a short rod, with two serpents coiled around it. The
serpents’ heads meet just below the wing.
The caduceus has come to represent Hermes and all trades and
undertakings associated with him. It also became the astrological
symbol for the planet Mercury, named after the Roman counterpart of
Hermes, and subsequently its metal namesake. Basically, everything that
Mercury stood for is symbolized by the caduceus. Mercury is the Roman
god of eloquence, commerce, money making, travel and thievery. He was
also believed to have invented all of the arts.
There is an ongoing controversy regarding the use of the caduceus as a
symbol for the medical field especially in American hospitals. The real
symbol of medicine or the medical practice is the “rod of
Asclepius”.
Asclepius is the Greek god of healing and medicine. The rod of
Asclepius doesn’t have wings and only 1 snake is coiled
around it. The
confusion is believed to have begun in the middle of the 19th century
and has endured as a long and winded saga of what professionals and
scholars consider “flimsy and pseudo-historical
research”.
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