caduceus
American Heritage Dictionary:
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ca·du·ce·us
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n., pl., -ce·i (-sē-ī').
- A herald's wand or staff, especially in ancient times.
- Greek Mythology. A winged staff with two serpents twined around it, carried by Hermes.
- An insignia modeled on Hermes's staff and used as the symbol of the medical profession.
[Latin cādūceus, alteration of Greek dialectal kārūkeion, from kārūx, herald.]
caducean ca·du'ce·an (-sē-ən, -shən) adj.Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
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caduceus
Staff carried by Hermes as a symbol of peace. It served as a badge of protection for ancient Greek and Roman heralds and ambassadors. It was originally depicted as a rod or olive branch ending in two shoots and decorated with garlands or ribbons; in later iconography the garlands became two snakes and a pair of wings was attached to the staff to represent Hermes' speed. The caduceus was adopted as a symbol of physicians because of its similarity to the staff of Asclepius.
For more information on caduceus, visit Britannica.com.
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pl. caducei
1. Winged rod with two serpents and leaves wound around it, called the Wand of Hermes (of which deity it is an attribute). Compare Aaron's rod.
2. Herald's rod, or wreathed olive-branch, originally wingless.
Caduceus (a) As 1; (b) Leafless Aaron's rod 2.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
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caduceus
caduceus (kədyū'sēəs), wing-topped staff, with two snakes winding about it, carried by Hermes, given to him (according to one legend) by Apollo. The symbol of two intertwined snakes appeared early in Babylonia and is related to other serpent symbols of fertility, wisdom, and healing, and of sun gods. This staff of Hermes was carried by Greek heralds and ambassadors and became a Roman symbol for truce, neutrality, and noncombatant status. By regulation, it has since 1902 been the insignia of the medical branch of the U.S. army. The caduceus is much used as a symbol of commerce, postal service, and ambassadorial positions and since the 16th cent. has largely replaced the one-snake symbol of Asclepius as a symbol of medicine.
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The caduceus, an esoteric symbol picturing two serpents coiled around a rod, is one of the most ancient symbols in the Middle East. Serpents always carried very opposite connotations. They were beautifully decorated creatures who symbolized wisdom. In many cases they also carried a deadly venom and their bite killed. The ancient Hebrews saw the serpent in the Garden of Eden as the instrument of humanity's fall from innocence. While in the wilderness, many were bitten by serpents and, according to the story, Moses lifted up a brass image of a serpent coiled around a rod (Num. 21:8-9). Those who looked upon the serpent were healed. Throughout Mesopotamia, the serpent was associated with healing deities. Thus did it find its most common use as the symbol of physicians. While probably originating in Mesopotamia, the caduceus found its way eastward to India and westward into the Mediterranean. It is associated with the use of paired serpents in general such as those on the Egyptian Pharaoh's headpiece or the serpents coiled around the body of Mithras. In Greek lore, Hermes (the Roman Mercury) came upon two serpents fighting. He thrust his rod between them. They coiled around the rod and remained attached to it. Thus, the caduceus emerged as the symbol of messenger of the God. In Greek thought, the caduceus acquired wings. In India, the caduceus became associated with the kundalini or serpent power, the latent power believed to lie as a coiled serpent at the base of the spine. As spiritual consciousness awakens, the energy travels up the spine to the top of the head. In Roman thought, the caduceus was a symbol of moral equilibrium and good conduct.
Over the centuries, the caduceus was brought into the esoteric Gnostic tradition and reappears as symbolic of power and the balance between positive and negative or darkness and light. It has a special place in the rich iconography of speculative Freemasonry. As Eastern and Western symbology has mixed and merged in the twentieth century, the ancient caduceus has emerged as a symbol of enlightenment and acquisition of the ancient wisdom.
Sources:
Cirlot, J. E. A Dictionary of Symbols. New York: Philosophical Library, 1962, 1971.
Hall, Manly Palmer. The Secret Teachings of All Ages. Los Angeles: Philosophical Research Society, 1977.
Obscure Words:
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caduceus
symbol of the medical profession, two snakes winding around the staff of Caduceus (but see aesculapian)
Word Tutor:
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caduceus
IN BRIEF: n. - An insignia used by the medical profession.
Tutor's tip: The doctor thought of the "caduceus" (rod of Hermes with two snakes intertwined, symbol of the medical profession) as he watched the "caducous" (falling early) autumn leaves.
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Saunders Veterinary Dictionary:
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caduceus
The wand of Hermes or Mercury consisting of a winged staff with two serpents entwined; used as a symbol of the medical profession and as the emblem of most military Medical Corps. Another symbol of medicine is the staff of Æsculapius, which is the official insignia of the American Medical Association. The American Veterinary Medical Association uses a modification of the caduceus as an emblem. The staff is unwinged, there is a single serpent instead of two, and a large V is imprinted over the whole.
An adaptation of the caduceus, with only one snake winding itself around the staff is the emblem of the Veterinary Corps of the US Army.
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categories related to 'caduceus'
- Symbolic and Emblematic Attire - caduceus: herald’s staff
- Myths, Legends, and Fables - caduceus: winged staff of Mercury
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Caduceus
This article is about the Greek symbol. For the medical symbol, see Caduceus as a symbol of medicine. For the medical symbol with one snake, often mistakenly referred to as a caduceus, see Rod of Asclepius.
For other uses, see Caduceus (disambiguation).
The caduceus (☤; 
/kəˈdjuːsiːəs/ or /kəˈdjuːʃəs/; from Greek κηρύκειον kērukeion "herald's staff"[2] ) is the staff carried by Hermes in Greek mythology. The same staff was also borne by heralds in general, for example by Iris, the messenger of Hera. It is a short staff entwined by two serpents, sometimes surmounted by wings. In Roman iconography it was often depicted being carried in the left hand of Mercury, the messenger of the gods, guide of the dead and protector of merchants, shepherds, gamblers, liars, and thieves.[3]
As a symbolic object it represents Hermes (or the Roman Mercury), and by extension trades, occupations or undertakings associated with the god. In later Antiquity the caduceus provided the basis for the astrological symbol representing the planet Mercury. Thus, through its use in astrology and alchemy, it has come to denote the elemental metal of the same name.
By extension of its association with Mercury/Hermes, the caduceus is also a recognized symbol of commerce and negotiation, two realms in which balanced exchange and reciprocity are recognized as ideals.[4][5] This association is ancient, and consistent from the Classical period to modern times.[6] The caduceus is also used as a symbol representing printing, again by extension of the attributes of Mercury (in this case associated with writing and eloquence).
The caduceus is sometimes mistakenly used as a symbol of medicine and/or medical practice, especially in North America, because of historical and widespread confusion with the traditional medical symbol, the rod of Asclepius, which has only a single snake and no wings.
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Origin and comparative mythology
Further information: Serpent worship
The term kerukeion denoted any herald's staff, not necessarily associated with Hermes in particular.[7]
Lewis Richard Farnell (1909) in his study of the cult of Hermes assumed that the two snakes had simply developed out of ornaments of the shepherd's crook used by heralds as their staff.[8] This view has been rejected by later authors pointing to parallel iconography in the Ancient Near East. It has been argued that the staff or wand entwined by two snakes was itself representing a god in the pre-anthropomorphic era. Like the herm or priapus, it would thus be a predecessor of the anthropomorphic Hermes of the classical era.[9]
Ancient Near East
William Hayes Ward (1910) discovered that symbols similar to the classical caduceus sometimes appeared on Mesopotamian cylinder seals. He suggested the symbol originated some time between 3000 and 4000 BCE, and that it might have been the source of the Greek caduceus.[10] A.L. Frothingham incorporated Dr. Ward's research into his own work, published in 1916, in which he suggested that the prototype of Hermes was an "Oriental deity of Babylonian extraction" represented in his earliest form as a snake god. From this perspective, the caduceus was originally representative of Hermes himself, in his early form as the Underworld god Ningishzida, "messenger" of the "Earth Mother".[11] The caduceus is mentioned in passing by Walter Burkert[12] as "really the image of copulating snakes taken over from Ancient Near Eastern tradition".
In Egyptian iconography, the Djed pillar is depicted as containing a snake in a frieze of the Dendera Temple complex.
The rod of Moses and the brazen serpent are frequently compared to the caduceus, especially as Moses is acting as a messenger of God to the Pharaoh at the point in the narrative where he changes his staff into a serpent.[13]
Classical antiquity
Mythology
The Homeric hymn to Hermes relates how Hermes offered his lyre fashioned from a tortoise shell as compensation for the cattle he stole from his half brother Apollo. Apollo in return gave Hermes the caduceus as a gesture of friendship.[14] The association with the serpent thus connects Hermes to Apollo, as later the serpent was associated with Asclepius, the "son of Apollo".[15] The association of Apollo with the serpent is a continuation of the older Indo-European dragon-slayer motif. Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (1913) pointed out that the serpent as an attribute of both Hermes and Asclepius is a variant of the "pre-historic semi-chthonic serpent hero known at Delphi as Python", who in classical mythology is slain by Apollo.[16]
One Greek myth of origin of the caduceus is part of the story of Tiresias,[17] who found two snakes copulating and killed the female with his staff. Tiresias was immediately turned into a woman, and so remained until he was able to repeat the act with the male snake seven years later. This staff later came into the possession of the god Hermes, along with its transformative powers.
Another myth suggests that Hermes (or Mercury) saw two serpents entwined in mortal combat. Separating them with his wand he brought about peace between them, and as a result the wand with two serpents came to be seen as a sign of peace.[18]
In Rome, Livy refers to the caduceator who negotiated peace arrangements under the diplomatic protection of the caduceus he carried.
Iconography
In some vase paintings ancient depictions of the Greek kerukeion are somewhat different from the commonly seen modern representation. These representations feature the two snakes atop the staff (or rod), crossed to create a circle with the heads of the snakes resembling horns. This old graphic form, with an additional crossbar to the staff, seems to have provided the basis for the graphical sign of Mercury (☿) used in Greek astrology from Late Antiquity.[19]
Modern use
Caduceus is encoded in Unicode at code point U+2624: ☤.
Symbol of commerce
A simplified variant of the caduceus is to be found in dictionaries, indicating a “commercial term” entirely in keeping with the association of Hermes with commerce. In this form the staff is often depicted with two winglets attached and the snakes are omitted (or reduced to a small ring in the middle).[20] The Customs Service of the former German Democratic Republic employed the caduceus, bringing its implied associations with thresholds, translators, and commerce, in the service medals they issued their staff.
Misuse as symbol of medicine
Further information: Rod of Asclepius and Caduceus as a symbol of medicine
Main article: Caduceus as a symbol of medicine
It is relatively common, especially in the United States, to find the caduceus, with its two snakes and wings, used as a symbol of medicine instead of the correct rod of Asclepius, with only a single snake. This usage is erroneous, popularised largely as a result of the adoption of the caduceus as its insignia by the US Army medical corps in 1902 at the insistence of a single officer (though there are conflicting claims as to whether this was Capt. Frederick P. Reynolds or Col. John R. van Hoff).[21][22]
The rod of Asclepius is the dominant symbol for professional healthcare associations in the United States. One survey found that 62% of professional healthcare associations used the rod of Asclepius as their symbol.[23] The same survey found that 76% of commercial healthcare organizations used the Caduceus symbol. The author of the study suggests the difference exists because professional associations are more likely to have a real understanding of the two symbols, whereas commercial organizations are more likely to be concerned with the visual impact a symbol will have in selling their products.
The initial errors leading to its adoption and the continuing confusion it generates are well known to medical historians. The long-standing and abundantly attested historical associations of the caduceus with commerce, theft, deception, and death are considered by many to be inappropriate in a symbol used by those engaged in the healing arts.[22] This has occasioned significant criticism of the use of the caduceus in a medical context.
| “ | As god of the high-road and the market-place Hermes was perhaps above all else the patron of commerce and the fat purse: as a corollary, he was the special protector of the traveling salesman. As spokesman for the gods, he not only brought peace on earth (occasionally even the peace of death), but his silver-tongued eloquence could always make the worse appear the better cause.[24] From this latter point of view, would not his symbol be suitable for certain Congressmen, all medical quacks, book agents and purveyors of vacuum cleaners, rather than for the straight-thinking, straight-speaking therapeutist? As conductor of the dead to their subterranean abode, his emblem would seem more appropriate on a hearse than on a physician's car. | ” |
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—Stuart L. Tyson, "The Caduceus", in The Scientific Monthly[25] |
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See also
- Aaron's rod
- Amphisbaena
- Bowl of Hygieia
- Nehushtan
- Ningishzida
- Rod of Asclepius
- Serpent (symbolism)
- Kundalini
- Mithraic mysteries
Notes
- ^ It is unclear whether the inscription refers to a patron/donor or a sculptor
- ^ The Latin word cādūceus is an adaptation of the Greek κηρύκειον kērukeion, meaning "herald's wand (or staff)", deriving from κῆρυξ kērux, meaning "messenger, herald, envoy". Liddell and Scott, Greek-English Lexicon; Stuart L. Tyson, "The Caduceus", The Scientific Monthly, 34.6, (1932:492-98) p. 493
- ^ Hornblower, Spawforth, The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd Ed., Oxford, 1996, pp 690-691
- ^ e.g. the Unicode standard, where the "staff of Hermes" signifies "a commercial term or commerce"; see also: Walter J. Friedlander, The Golden Wand of Medicine: A History of the Caduceus Symbol in Medicine, Greenwood, 1992, p83
- ^ As one specialized study of symbolism notes, "In modern times the caduceus figures as a symbol of commerce, since Mercury is the god of commerce. M. Oldfield Howey, The Encircled Serpent: A Study of Serpent Symbolism in All Countries And Ages, New York, 1955, p77
- ^ "The name of the god Mercury cannot be disassociated from the word merx, which means merchandise. Such was the sentiment of the ancients" Yves Bonnefoy (Ed.), Wendy Doniger (Trans.), Roman and European Mythologies, University of Chicago Press, 1992, p135; "Mercury was the Roman name for the Greek god Hermes. His Latin name was apparently derived from merx or mercator, a merchant." Michael E. Bakich, The Cambridge Planetary Handbook, Cambridge University Press, 2000, p85; Latin merx is the root of the English words Commerce, Market, Mart, Mercantile, Mercenary, Mercer, Merchant and Mercury, as can be seen by referring to any dictionary including etymological information.
- ^ Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd edition, Ed. Hornblower and Spawforth, s.v. "Hermes".
- ^ Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, Vol. V, p. 20, cited in Tyson 1932:494
- ^ A. L. Frothingham, Babylonian Origin of Hermes the Snake-God, and of the Caduceus I American Journal of Archaeology Vol. 20, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1916), pp. 175-211 http://www.jstor.org/stable/497115 Frothingham characterizes Farnell's simplistic view of the origin of the symbol as a "frivolous and futile theory".
- ^ William Hayes Ward, The Seal Cylinders of Western Asia, Washington, 1910
- ^ A.L. Frothingham, "Babylonian Origins of Hermes the Snake-God, and of the Caduceus", in American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 20, No. 2, pp.175-211
- ^ Burkert, Greek Religion 1985: II.2.8, p.158; Burkert notes H. Frankfort, in Iraq, 1 (1934:10) and E.D. van Buren, in Archiv für Orientforschung, 10 (1935/36:53-65.
- ^ e.g. Marc Shell, Stutter, Harvard University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-674-01937-9, p. 111: "Whether or not Moses' staff is a Hermetic caduceus like the serpentine staff of cure-all Asclepias, it serves to remind us that Moses' ancestor, Jacob, was lame of hip (as the result of a wrestling match with a "stranger") and carries a staff."
- ^ Tyson 1932:494.
- ^ Deldon Anne McNeely Mercury rising: women, evil, and the trickster gods, Spring Publications, 1996, ISBN 978-0-88214-366-8, p. 90. "Homer tell us that Hermes' caduceus, the golden wand, was acquired by Hermes from Apollo in exchange for the tortoise-lyre; later the caduceus changed hands again from Hermes to Apollo's son, Asclepius."
- ^ S. Davis, 'Argeiphontes in Homer—The Dragon-Slayer', Greece & Rome, Vol. 22, No. 64 (Feb., 1953), pp. 33-38, http://www.jstor.org/stable/640827 citing W. H. Roscher, Omphalos (1913).
- ^ Blayney, Keith (September 2002). "The Caduceus vs the Staff of Asclepius". http://drblayney.com/Asclepius.html. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
- ^ Tyson 1932:495
- ^ "Signs and Symbols Used In Writing and Printing", p 269, in Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language, unabridged, New York, 1953. Here the symbol of the planet Mercury is indicated as "the caduceus of Mercury, or his head and winged cap".
- ^ For example, see the Unicode standard, where the "staff of Hermes" signifies "a commercial term or commerce".
- ^ F.H. Garrison, "The Use of the Caduceus in the Insignia of the Army Medical Officer", in Bull. Med. Lib. Assoc. IX (1919-20), 13-16
- ^ a b Engle, Bernice (Dec 1929). "The Use of Mercury's Caduceus as a Medical Emblem"". The Classical Journal 25 (1): 205.
- ^ Friedlander, Walter J (1992). The Golden Wand of Medicine: A History of the Caduceus symbol in medicine. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-28023-1.
- ^ An allusion to John Milton's description of Belial in Paradise Lost II.113-114.
- ^ Tyson, Stuart L (1932). "The Caduceus". Scientific Monthly 34 (6): 495.
Further reading
- Walter J. Friedlander, The Golden Wand of Medicine: A History of the Caduceus Symbol in Medicine, 1992. ISBN 0-313-28023-1; ISBN 978-0-313-28023-8.
- Bunn, J. T. Origin of the caduceus motif, JAMA, 1967. United States National Institutes of Health: National Center for Biotechnology Information. PMID 4863068
- Burkert, Walter, Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual, Translation, University of California, 1979.
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