Caduceus

{{About-distinguish-text|a staff entwined with two serpents|the Rod of Asclepius, entwined with one serpent}}

File:Hermes Ingenui Pio-Clementino Inv544.jpg, Rome)]]

The caduceus (☤; {{IPAc-en|k|ə|ˈ|dj|uː|ʃ|ə|s|,_|-|s|i|ə|s}}; {{etymology|la|{{wikt-lang|la|cādūceus}}|}}, {{etymology|grc|{{wikt-lang|grc|κηρύκειον}} ({{grc-transl|κηρύκειον}})|herald's wand, staff}}){{efn|The Latin word {{wikt-lang|la|cādūceus}} is an adaptation of the Greek word, itself derived {{etymology|grc|{{wikt-lang|grc|κῆρυξ}} ({{grc-transl|κῆρυξ}})|messenger, herald, envoy}}.Liddell and Scott, Greek–English Lexicon{{sfnp|Tyson|1932|page=493}}}} is the staff carried by Hermes in Greek mythology and consequently by Hermes Trismegistus in Greco-Egyptian mythology. The same staff was borne by other heralds like Iris, the messenger of Hera. The short staff is entwined by two serpents, sometimes surmounted by wings. In Roman iconography, it was depicted being carried in the left hand of Mercury, the messenger of the gods.

Some accounts assert that the oldest imagery of the caduceus is rooted in Mesopotamia with the Sumerian god Ningishzida; his symbol, a staff with two snakes intertwined around it, dates back to 4000 BC to 3000 BC.Gary Lachman, The Quest for Hermes Trismigestus, 2011, Chapter 3, p. x. This iconography may have been a representation of two snakes copulating.{{sfnp|Lisman|2013|p=34}}

As a symbol, 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 astronomical symbol for planet Mercury. Thus, through its use in astrology, alchemy, and astronomy it has come to denote the planet Mercury and by extension the eponymous planetary metal. It is said that the wand would wake the sleeping and send the awake to sleep. If applied to the dying, their death was gentle; if applied to the dead, they returned to life.{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/livesnecromance04godwgoog |title=Lives of the Necromancers |author=William Godwin |year=1876 |page=37 }}

By extension of its association with Mercury and Hermes, the caduceus is also a symbol of commerce and negotiation, two realms in which exchange balanced by reciprocity is recognized as an ideal.{{cite web |publisher=Unicode Consortium |title=Miscellaneous Symbols |quote={{unichar|269A|Staff of Hermes}} signifies a commercial term or commerce |url=https://www.unicode.org/charts/nameslist/n_2600.html |access-date=2021-09-14 |archive-date=2012-12-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121204210303/https://www.unicode.org/charts/nameslist/n_2600.html |url-status=live }}{{sfnp|Friedlander|1992 |page=83}}{{cite book |quote=In modern times the caduceus figures as a symbol of commerce, since Mercury is the god of commerce |first=M. Oldfield |last=Howey |title=The Encircled Serpent: A Study of Serpent Symbolism in All Countries and Ages |publisher=Arthur Richmond Co. |location=New York |date=1955 |page=77}} This association is ancient, and consistent from classical antiquity to modernity.{{cite book |quote=The name of the god Mercury cannot be disassociated from the word {{lang|la|merx}}, which means merchandise. Such was the sentiment of the ancients. |editor-first=Yves |editor-last=Bonnefoy |translator=Wendy Doniger |title=Roman and European Mythologies |publisher=University of Chicago Press |date=1992 |page=135}}{{cite book |quote=Mercury was the Roman name for the Greek god Hermes. His Latin name was apparently derived from merx or mercator, a merchant.|first=Michael E. |last=Bakich |title=The Cambridge Planetary Handbook |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2000 |page=85}} The caduceus is also a symbol of printing, by extension of the attributes of Mercury associated with writing and eloquence.

Although the Rod of Asclepius, which has only one snake and no wings, is the traditional and more widely used symbol of medicine, the caduceus is sometimes used by healthcare organizations. Given that the caduceus is primarily a symbol of commerce and other non-medical symbology, many healthcare professionals disapprove of this use.

Classical antiquity

{{gallery|title=The Caduceus in classical imagery

|File:Pompeii - Casa dei Vettii - Ixion.jpg

|alt1=Fresco from Pompeii of the punishment of Ixion, showing the god Mercury holding a Caduceus

|Fresco from Pompeii of the punishment of Ixion: in the center is Mercury holding the caduceus

|File:Winged goddess Cdm Paris 392.jpg

|alt2=Iris with the caduceus

|Iris with the caduceus in detail from an Attic red-figure pelike, middle of fifth century BC (Agrigento, Sicily)

|File:Münze aus Sardes mit Hermesstab.jpg

|alt3=Coin from Sardis with caduceus

|Coin from Sardis (Turkey) with caduceus ({{Circa|140-144 CE}})

}}

=Mythology=

The Homeric Hymn to Hermes relates how his half brother Apollo was enchanted by Hermes's music from his lyre fashioned from a tortoise shell, which Hermes kindly gave to him. Apollo in return gave Hermes the caduceus as a gesture of friendship.{{sfnp|Tyson|1932|page=494}} The association with the serpent thus connects Hermes to Apollo, as later the serpent was associated with Asclepius, the "son of Apollo".{{cite book |last=Deldon |first=Anne McNeely |title=Mercury rising: women, evil, and the trickster gods |publisher=Spring Publications |date=1996 |isbn=978-0-88214-366-8 |page=90 |quote=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.}}

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.{{cite journal|first=S |last=Davis |title=Argeiphontes in Homer – The Dragon-Slayer|journal=Greece & Rome|volume=22|issue=64|year=1953|pages=33–38|doi=10.1017/S0017383500011712|jstor= 640827|s2cid=163106261 }} (citing W. H. Roscher, Omphalos (1913))

One Greek myth of origin of the caduceus is part of the story of Tiresias,{{cite web|url=http://drblayney.com/Asclepius.html|title=The Caduceus vs the Staff of Asclepius|last=Blayney|first=Keith|date=September 2002|access-date=2007-06-15|archive-date=2019-10-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191016050753/http://www.drblayney.com/Asclepius.html|url-status=live}} 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.{{sfnp|Tyson|1932|page=495}}

In Rome, Livy refers to the caduceator who negotiated peace arrangements under the diplomatic protection of the caduceus he carried.Livy: Ab Urbe Condita Libri, 31,38,9–10

=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."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".

Origin and comparative mythology

File:Lekythos of Hermes.jpg lekythos, {{Circa|475 BC}}, attributed to the Tithonos Painter]]

The term kerukeion denoted any herald's staff, not necessarily associated with Hermes in particular.Oxford Classical Dictionary, third edition, ed. Hornblower and Spawforth, s.v. "Hermes".

In his study of the cult of Hermes, Lewis Richard Farnell (1909) assumed that the two snakes had simply developed out of ornaments of the shepherd's crook used by heralds as their staff.Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, vol. 5, p. 20, cited in Tyson 1932:494. 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.{{cite journal|author=A. L. Frothingham|title=Babylonian Origin of Hermes the Snake-God, and of the Caduceus I|journal=American Journal of Archaeology|year=1916|volume= 20, No. 2 (April–June, 1916)|issue=2|pages= 175–211|doi=10.2307/497115| jstor=497115}} Frothingham characterizes Farnell's simplistic view of the origin of the symbol as a "frivolous and futile theory".

=Ancient Near East=

File:Serpent_god_Ningishzida_on_the_libation_vase_of_Gudea,_circa_2100_BCE.jpg, on the libation vase of Sumerian ruler Gudea, {{circa|2100 BCE}}]]

File:Caduceus on Mauryan coin.jpg of king Ashoka in India, third to second century BC]]

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 BC, and that it might have been the source of the Greek caduceus.William Hayes Ward, The Seal Cylinders of Western Asia, Washington, 1910 A.L. Frothingham incorporated 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".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

The caduceus is mentioned in passing by Walter BurkertBurkert, 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). 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.

=India=

The caduceus also appears as a symbol of the punch-marked coins of the Maurya Empire in India, in the third or second century BC. Numismatic research suggest that this symbol was the symbol of the Buddhist king Ashoka, his personal "Mudra".Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi, Indian Numismatics, Orient Longman, New Delhi 1981, p. 73 ([https://books.google.com/books?id=favxZII9WtwC&pg=PA73 online]). This symbol was not used on the pre-Mauryan punch-marked coins, but only on coins of the Maurya period, together with the three arched-hill symbol, the "peacock on the hill", the triskelis and the Taxila mark.Kailash Chand Jain, Malwa Through the Ages. From the Earliest Time to 1305 A.D., Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi et al. 1972, p. 134 ([https://books.google.com/books?id=_3O7q7cU7k0C&pg=PA134 online]).

It also appears carved in basalt rock in few temples of western ghats.

Early modern use

During the early modern period, the caduceus was used as a symbol of rhetoric (associated with Mercury's eloquence).{{cite book |editor1-last=Noldus |editor1-first=B. |editor2-last=Roding |editor2-first=J. |title=Pieter Isaacsz (1569-1625): Court Painter, Art Trader and Spy |date=2007 |publisher=Brepol |isbn=9782503524665 |pages=280, 288}}

File:A seated woman with a scroll and two books, holding a caduce Wellcome V0047927.jpg|Engraving by Hendrik Goltzius (1558–1617)

File:Rhetoric- a young woman standing in a decorated interior with a caduceus in her right hand and a closed fan in her left hand, from the series 'The liberal arts' (Les arts liberaux) MET DP829049.jpg|La Retorique (1633–35)

File:Allegory of Rhetoric.jpg|Allegory of Rhetoric (1650)

Modern use

=Symbol of commerce=

A simplified caduceus is found in dictionaries, as a "commercial term" entirely in keeping with the association of Hermes with commerce. In this form the staff is often depicted with two winglets and the snakes omitted or reduced to a small ring in the middle. The customs service of the former German Democratic Republic demonstrated the caduceus' association with thresholds, translators, and commerce in the service medals issued to their staff. The caduceus is also the symbol of the customs agency of Bulgaria and of the financial administration of the Slovakia{{Cite web |title=Logo of the Financial Administration of the Slovak Republic |url=https://www.financnasprava.sk/_img/pfsedit/Dokumenty_PFS/Legislativa/IRA/smer/2015/2018.07.23_Smer_2015_04_pril01.pdf |access-date=2019-02-20 |archive-date=2019-02-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190220235907/https://www.financnasprava.sk/_img/pfsedit/Dokumenty_PFS/Legislativa/IRA/smer/2015/2018.07.23_Smer_2015_04_pril01.pdf |url-status=dead }} (Tax and Customs administration). The emblems of Belarus Customs{{Cite web |url=http://www.customs.gov.by/en/history-en/ |title=Customs heraldy |author=Belarus Customs |access-date=2020-08-12 |archive-date=2020-09-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200920225926/https://www.customs.gov.by/en/history-en/ |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web |url=https://www.fotw.info/flags/by-cust.html |title=Belarus - Customs Flag |work=FOTW |access-date=2020-08-12 |archive-date=2020-08-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200811155019/https://fotw.info/flags/by-cust.html |url-status=live }} and China Customs[http://zhengzhou.customs.gov.cn/publish/portal106/tab1641/module5966/info3560.htm 海关关徽] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181014165556/http://zhengzhou.customs.gov.cn/publish/portal106/tab1641/module5966/info3560.htm |date=2018-10-14 }}. are a caduceus crossing with a golden key. The emblem of the Federal Customs Service of Russia has a caduceus crossing with a torch on the shield. The coat of arms of Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics of Ukraine has two crossed torches surmounted by a caduceus on the shield.

=Confusion with Rod of Asclepius=

Computer coding

{{Infobox symbol

|sign = ☤

|name = Caduceus

|unicode = {{unichar|2624|Caduceus}}

|see also =
{{unichar|263F|Mercury|nlink=Mercury (planet)}}
{{unichar|1F750|Alchemical symbol for Caduceus}}
{{unichar|2BDA|Hygiea|nlink=10 Hygiea}}

|different from = {{unichar|2695|Staff of Aesculapius|nlink=Rod of Asclepius}}
{{unichar|269A|Staff of Hermes}}

}}

For use in documents prepared on computer, the symbol has code point in Unicode, at {{unichar|2624|Caduceus}}. There is a similar glyph encoded at {{unichar|269A|staff of Hermes}}, an alchemical symbol at {{unichar|1F750|Alchemical symbol for Caduceus}}, and an astrological one at {{unichar|2BDA|Hygiea}}. [For information on how to enter the symbol, see Unicode input (or copy/paste it directly).] These symbols are not provided in all fonts, especially older ones.

Coats of arms and flags

The symbol is depicted on multiple coats of arms and flags.

{{gallery|noborder=yes|whitebg=no|width=160|height=160|title=Caduceus in coats of arms and flags

|File:Coat_of_arms_of_Ecuador.svg|alt1=The coat of arms of Ecuador.|Coat of arms of Ecuador

|File:Jyväskylä.vaakuna.svg|alt2=Caduceus on the coat of arms of Jyväskylä, Finland|Caduceus on the coat of arms of Jyväskylä, Finland

|File:Tampere.vaakuna.svg|alt3=Gules a bend sinister wavy accompanied in chief by a hammer and in base by a caduceus all Or.|Coat of arms of Tampere, Finland

|File:Blason Lassay-les-Châteaux 53.svg|alt4=Argent a caduceus azure|Coat of arms of Lassay-les-Châteaux, France

|File:Blason ville fr Saint-Pantaléon (Vaucluse).svg|alt5=Azure, a caduceus or; upon the chief azure, a fleur-de-lis between two towers, all or.|Coat of arms of Saint-Pantaléon, France

|File:POL gmina Nur COA.svg|alt6=Azure, in base a wavy stripe argent, in chief a caduceus at the dexter and an anchor at the simister, all or.|Coat of arms of Gmina Nur, Poland

|File:Emblem of the Federal Customs Service of Russia.svg|alt7=Vert bordure or a torch and a caduceus or saltirewise; for a Crest, a double-headed eagle displayed, twice imperially crowned, all Or, In chief another larger imperial crown with issuant and pendent therefrom a ribbon of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called, also Or|Emblem of the Federal Customs Service of Russia

|File:Coat of Arms of Irbit (Sverdlovsk oblast).png|alt8=Per fess argent and gules, in chief a saltire azure, in base a caduceus or and a saber or saltirewise.|Coat of arms of Irbit, Russia

|File:Bengtsfors vapen.svg|alt9=Gules, a bridge argent surmounted by a caduceus argent.|Coat of arms of Bengtsfors Municipality, Sweden

|File:Balta coat of arms new official.png|alt10=Azure bordure or, a sheaf of six garbs or charged with a caduceus or, and overall surmounted by a mural crown argent.|Coat of arms of Balta, Ukraine

|File:Coat of arms of Berdychiv.svg|alt11=Vert bordure or, a caduceus or and an axe argent saltirewise, four octagrams or in chief, in base and in fess, and overall surmounted by a mural crown argent.|Coat of arms of Berdychiv, Ukraine

|File:Coat of arms of Kharkiv.svg|alt12=Vert bordure or, a caduceus argent and or, and a cornucopia or with fruits and vegetables proper saltirewise.|Coat of arms of Kharkiv, Ukraine

|File:Menade Bal Püki Bal.svg|alt13=A caduceus between two globes, overlaid with the text "Menade Bal Püki Bal".|Emblem of the Volapük language

|File:Flag of Belarus Customs.png|alt14=Customs flag of Belarus, with a Caduceus crossed with a golden key at the center|Customs flag of Belarus, with a Caduceus crossed with a golden key at the center

|File:Flag of the Customs of the People's Republic of China.svg|alt15=Customs flag of China, with a Caduceus crossed with a golden key at the lower fly half| Customs flag of China, with a Caduceus crossed with a golden key at the lower fly half

|File:Flag of Brisbane.svg|alt16=Flag of the City of Brisbane| Flag of the City of Brisbane, Australia{{cite web |url=https://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/about-council/council-information-and-rates/council-history/symbols-used-by-council |access-date=2022-01-11 |publisher=Brisbane City Council |title=Brisbane City Council: Symbols used by Council |archive-date=2023-03-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326023556/https://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/about-council/council-information-and-rates/council-history/symbols-used-by-council |url-status=live }}

|File:Flag of Vancouver Island.svg|alt17=Unofficial flag of Vancouver Island|Flag of Vancouver Island, Canada (unofficial)

}}

Notes

References

Sources

{{cite book |first=Walter J. |last=Friedlander |title=The Golden Wand of Medicine: A History of the Caduceus Symbol in Medicine |publisher=Greenwood Press |date=1992|isbn=978-0-313-28023-8}}.
{{Cite book |last=Lisman |first=J.W. |title=Cosmogony, Theogony and Anthropogeny in Sumerian texts |date=2013 |publisher=Ugarit-Verlag}}
{{cite journal | first=Stuart L. |last=Tyson |title=The Caduceus |journal=The Scientific Monthly |volume=34 |number=6 |date=1932 |pages=492–498|bibcode=1932SciMo..34..492T }}

External links

[https://www.theoi.com/Gallery/P21.4.html Iris and Infant Hermes with Caduceus]
[https://www.britannica.com/topic/caduceus Caduceus] from Encyclopædia Britannica
Fenkl, Heinz Insu, {{usurped|[https://web.archive.org/web/20061111101640/http://www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/forcaduc.html Caduceus]}}

Category:Objects in Greek mythology

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Category:Heraldic charges

Category:Hermes

Category:Snakes in art

Category:Walking sticks

Category:Ritual weapons

Category:Snakes in religion