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Caduceus
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==Origin and comparative mythology== {{further information|Serpent worship}} [[File:Lekythos of Hermes.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Hermes hastens bearing his ''kerukeion'', on an [[Attica|Attic]] [[lekythos]], {{Circa|475 BC}}, attributed to the [[Tithonos Painter]]]] The term ''kerukeion'' denoted any herald's staff, not necessarily associated with Hermes in particular.<ref>''Oxford Classical Dictionary'', third edition, ed. Hornblower and Spawforth, ''s.v.'' "Hermes".</ref> 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.<ref>Farnell, ''[[The Cults of the Greek States]]'', vol. 5, p. 20, cited in Tyson 1932:494.</ref> 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 [[herma|herm]] or [[priapus]], it would thus be a predecessor of the anthropomorphic Hermes of the classical era.<ref>{{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".</ref> <!-- The serpent-staff is in origin a symbolic depiction of the [[world pillar]] and the [[world serpent]]. The addition of a second serpent in the staff of Hermes is usually connected to an element of [[hermaphroditism]]. --> ===Ancient Near East=== [[File:Serpent_god_Ningishzida_on_the_libation_vase_of_Gudea,_circa_2100_BCE.jpg|thumb|upright|The Caduceus, symbol of God [[Ningishzida]], on the libation vase of [[Sumer]]ian ruler [[Gudea]], {{circa|2100 BCE}}]] [[File:Caduceus on Mauryan coin.jpg|thumb|upright|Caduceus symbol on a [[punch-marked coin]] 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.<ref>William Hayes Ward, ''The Seal Cylinders of Western Asia'', Washington, 1910</ref> 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".<ref>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</ref> The caduceus is mentioned in passing by [[Walter Burkert]]<ref>Burkert, ''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).</ref> 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]]".<ref>Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi, ''Indian Numismatics'', Orient Longman, New Delhi 1981, p. 73 ([https://books.google.com/books?id=favxZII9WtwC&pg=PA73 online]).</ref> This symbol was not used on the pre-Mauryan punch-marked coins, but only on coins of the Maurya period, together with the [[arched-hill symbol|three arched-hill symbol]], the "peacock on the hill", the [[triskelis]] and the [[Taxila]] mark.<ref>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]).</ref> It also appears carved in basalt rock in few temples of western ghats.
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