Caduceus

Caduceus (pronounced kuh-doo-see-uhs, kuh-doo-syoos, kuh-doo-shuhs or kuh-dyoo-shus)

(1) In Classical Mythology, the staff entwined with two serpents and bearing a pair of wings at the top, carried by Hermes (Mercury) as messenger of the gods.

(2) The official wand carried by a herald in ancient Greece and Rome.

(3) A symbol (☤) representing a staff with two snakes wrapped around it, used to indicate merchants and messengers.  It is often substituted for the staff of Asclepius as a symbol of medicine and the medical profession, the basis for this apparently the adoption of the caduceus by the US Army Medical Corps (USAMC).

1585–1595: From the Latin, a variant of cādūceus & cādūceum, from the Doric Ancient Greek καρύκειον (kārȳ́keion) (herald's wand or staff), this and the Attic Greek κηρύκειον (kērúkeion) derived from κῆρυξ (kêrux) (herald, public messenger), the construct being kārȳk- (stem of kârȳx) (herald) + -eion, neuter of -eios (the adjectival suffix).  The word was related to κηρύσσω (kērússō) (I announce).  Caduceus is a noun and caducean is an adjective; the noun plural is caducei.

Staff of Caduceus.

A long tradition of use seems to have created the impression the caduceus is the true symbol of medicine rather than the classically correct staff of Asclepius.  Winged with two serpents coiling around it, it represented Hermes (and the Roman Mercury), the messenger of the gods, guide of the dead and protector of merchants, shepherds, gamblers, liars, and thieves.  By extension, the caduceus became also a recognized symbol of commerce and negotiation, two realms in which balanced exchange and reciprocity are recognized as ideals (if not always common practice).  However, nothing in the Classical tradition associated the caduceus with medicine or physicians.

Staff of Asclepius.

The true symbol of matters medical was the Staff of Asclepius.  In Greek mythology, Asclepius, the son of Apollo the physician, was the deity associated with healing and medicinal arts.  Such was his skill he surpassed his reputation of his father and was believed to be able to evade death and to bring others back to life from the brink of death and beyond.  There has long been debate about the significance of the serpents and although in Greek mythology snakes were considered sacred, there have been many theories offered to account for the association with healing.  One idea was the snake may symbolize rejuvenation (on the basis of the way in which the reptiles shed their skin) while an alternative explanation was it represented the healing of snakebites. 

Asclepiusian: Lindsay Lohan as a compelling (if unconvincing) nurse, Maroon 5 Halloween Bash, October 2011.

The significance of the staff was even more practical and may have been an allusion to the traditional treatment of a parasitic nematode called Dracunculus medinensis (Guinea worm) in which, doctors would cut a slit in the skin right in its path and, when it poked its head from the wound, take a small stick and slowly wrap the worm around it until it was fully removed. The infection is relatively rare today, but the same method of extraction is still used.  The erroneous use of the caduceus as the symbol of medicine appears dates from its adoption in 1902 as the insignia of the US Army Medical Corps (USAMC), many commercial, academic and governmental institutions following the military’s lead.  The choice in 1902 however was no mistake and the caduceus was the deliberate choice of Brigadier General George Miller Sternberg (1838-1915; US Army Surgeon General 1893-1902) who was attracted to the idea of it as a symbol of neutrality and non-aggression, as it was also used as a flag of truce and safe passage (a token of a peaceful embassy, it was originally an olive branch).  A bacteriologist dedicated to the scientific method, he believed that the caduceus would be a more fitting symbol for the medical corps than the Rod of Asclepius, which he felt was too closely associated with mythology and religion.

Official portrait of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (b 1947; governor of Massachusetts 2003-2007, junior US senator (R-Utah) since 2019) unveiled in a ceremony on the Grand Staircase at the Statehouse, Boston, July 2009.

Governor Romney’s official gubernatorial portrait was notable for the inclusion of a nested image of his wife (Ann, b 1949, the one with the “two Cadillacs”), something not included in the paintings of his 69 predecessors in the governor’s mansion.  That would have made the 52 x 37” (1320 x 920 mm) painting interesting enough for amateur psychiatrists but it included also a leather-bound folder carefully placed on the desk and embossed with a gold-colored caduceus.  This the governor wanted as a representation of the Massachusetts health-care bill he signed into law in 2006.

The artist, Richard Whitney (b 1949), was interviewed and revealed working the symbol into the work presented a greater challenge to the painting’s composition than the inclusion of Mrs Romney.  He sketched concepts with the symbol in a frame on the desk and another with it mounted on the wall but neither proved satisfactory and it was only a chance viewing of the leather folder used to hold legislation awaiting the governor’s signature which provided the inspiration.  That proved artistically uncontroversial, unlike the nested image of Mrs Romney, the state art committee which oversees official portraits objecting on the basis it had never been done before.  This was however the United States and in the spirit of the Medici, Governor Romney reminded the committee members he was paying for the portrait and he could have on it whatever he wanted.  His wishes prevailed but the artist did insist only one of them could be smiling; both would have been too much.