Ego Dialogues

Caduceus & The Rod of Asclepius

Almost anyone knows this very wide spread symbol, so often used in connection with medicine and health:

It is called the Caduceus. However.... A caduceus (/kəˈduːsiəs/, -ʃəs, -ˈdjuː-; kerykeion in Greek) is a (sometimes) winged staff with two snakes wrapped around it. It was an ancient astrological symbol of commerce and is associated with the Greek god Hermes, the messenger for the gods, conductor of the dead and protector of merchants and thieves. It was originally a herald's staff, sometimes with wings, with two white ribbons attached. The ribbons eventually evolved into snakes. It is sometimes mistakenly used as a symbol for medicine, by those confusing it with the rod of Asclepius, which features only a single snake and no wings. Reference: Wikipedia

The Rod of Asclepius looks like this: The rod of Asclepius (also known as the rod of Asklepios, rod of Aesculapius or asklepian[1]) is an ancient Greek symbol associated with astrology and with healing the sick through medicine. It consists of a serpent entwined around a staff. Asclepius, the son of Apollo, was practitioner of medicine in ancient Greek mythology.

The power of symbolism and the human subconscious...

PS: Run an image search on any search engine for “medical symbol” and see which of the 2 symbols above is more common. It's pretty incredible...

- Live image search for medical symbol - Google image search for medical symbol - Yahoo image search for medical symbol

So, the health industry rather associates itself (or is associated) with the symbol for commerce, "protector of merchants and thieves", than with the symbol that actually stands for healing the sick.