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Caduceus

By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.

Description

Herald's staff, two snakes

The Homeric Hymn to Hermes has Apollo hand Hermes a staff of wealth and luck after the lyre-bargain. Later story adds the twin snakes: the god parts two fighting serpents and they coil the kerykeion. The staff is the herald's safe-conduct and the psychopomp's pass toward Hades, not a physician's rod. Asclepius carries a single snake on a staff; that is a different emblem, later confused in print. Roman Mercury keeps the caduceus as a badge. It is an attribute in hymn and art, not a named relic with a find-spot.

Primary Sources

“I will give you a splendid staff of riches and wealth, a golden one with three branches, which will keep you scatheless.”
Homeric Hymn to Hermes(c. 6th century BCE)

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