Saturday, July 30, 2016

The Cadusus vs. the Rod of Asclepius


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The Cadusus characterized by a rod with two snakes wrapped around it with wings, originates from ancient Greece, the winged herald’s winged staff, carried by Hermes, the messenger of the gods, also viewed as a protector of herdsmen, merchants, travelers and thieves.
The Roman adaptation, associated with Mercury, became the certification of fair trade, commerce and balanced exchange, the wings denoting protection by Roman law.

The Rod of Asclepius, on the other hand, stood for healing; from Asclepius a physician lost in pre written history but so venerated he became a god and his daughters, gods of hygiene, healing and health. By 4,500 BCE Asclepiads were of a school or guild of ethical and scientific physicians, physics as they were called then, later medicine (Greek, mindfulness) as taught in Greek medical schools by Hippocrates and his successors. The rod of Asclepius symbolized a concept of ethics, art and science that persists to this day despite epic periods of religious and political interference.

In North America, the Winged Cadusus comes to represent much the same as under Roman law, a symbol of protected trade, the commerce of healthcare, directed by politics and law.


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