|
The caduceus (☤; or ; from Greek ' "herald's staff"〔The Latin word ''ラテン語:cādūceus'' is an adaptation of the Greek ', meaning "herald's wand (or staff)", deriving from ', meaning "messenger, herald, envoy". Liddell and Scott, ''Greek-English Lexicon''; Stuart L. Tyson, "The Caduceus", ''The Scientific Monthly'', 34.6, (1932:492–98) p. 493〕 ) is the staff carried by Hermes Trismegistus in Egyptian mythology and Hermes in Greek mythology. The same staff was also borne by heralds in general, for example by Iris, the messenger of Hera. It is a short staff entwined by two serpents, sometimes surmounted by wings. In Roman iconography, it was often depicted being carried in the left hand of Mercury, the messenger of the gods, guide of the dead and protector of merchants, shepherds, gamblers, liars, and thieves.〔Hornblower, Spawforth, ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary'', 3rd Ed., Oxford, 1996, pp. 690–691〕 Some accounts suggest that the oldest known imagery of the caduceus have their roots in a Mesopotamian origin with the Sumerian god Ningishzida whose symbol, a staff with two snakes intertwined around it, dates back to 4000 B.C. to 3000 B.C.〔Gary Lachman, "The Quest for Hermes Trismigestus", 2011, Chapter 3, p.x〕 As a symbolic object, it represents Hermes (or the Roman Mercury), and by extension trades, occupations, or undertakings associated with the god. In later Antiquity, the caduceus provided the basis for the astrological symbol representing the planet Mercury. Thus, through its use in astrology and alchemy, it has come to denote the elemental metal of the same name. It is said the wand would wake the sleeping and send the awake to sleep. If applied to the dying, their death was gentle; if applied to the dead, they returned to life. By extension of its association with Mercury and Hermes, the caduceus is also a recognized symbol of commerce and negotiation, two realms in which balanced exchange and reciprocity are recognized as ideals.〔e.g. the Unicode standard, where the "staff of Hermes" signifies "a commercial term or commerce"; see also: Walter J. Friedlander, ''The Golden Wand of Medicine: A History of the Caduceus Symbol in Medicine'', Greenwood, 1992, p. 83〕〔As one specialized study of symbolism notes, "In modern times the caduceus figures as a symbol of commerce, since Mercury is the god of commerce. M. Oldfield Howey, ''The Encircled Serpent: A Study of Serpent Symbolism in All Countries And Ages'', New York, 1955, p. 77〕 This association is ancient, and consistent from the Classical period to modern times.〔"The name of the god Mercury cannot be disassociated from the word ''merx'', which means merchandise. Such was the sentiment of the ancients" Yves Bonnefoy (Ed.), Wendy Doniger (Trans.), ''Roman and European Mythologies'', University of Chicago Press, 1992, p. 135; "Mercury was the Roman name for the Greek god Hermes. His Latin name was apparently derived from merx or mercator, a merchant." Michael E. Bakich, ''The Cambridge Planetary Handbook'', Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 85; Latin ''merx'' is the root of the English words Commerce, Market, Mart, Mercantile, Mercenary, Mercer, Merchant and Mercury, as can be seen by referring to any dictionary including etymological information.〕 The caduceus is also used as a symbol representing printing, again by extension of the attributes of Mercury (in this case associated with writing and eloquence). The caduceus is often used incorrectly as a symbol of healthcare organizations and medical practice (especially in North America), due to confusion with the traditional medical symbol, the rod of Asclepius, which has only one snake and is never depicted with wings. ==Origin and comparative mythology== The term ''kerukeion'' denoted any herald's staff, not necessarily associated with Hermes in particular.〔''Oxford Classical Dictionary'', 3rd edition, Ed. Hornblower and Spawforth, ''s.v.'' "Hermes".〕 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.〔Farnell, ''The Cults of the Greek States'', Vol. V, p. 20, cited in Tyson 1932:494〕 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 herm or priapus, it would thus be a predecessor of the anthropomorphic Hermes of the classical era.〔 A. L. Frothingham, ''Babylonian Origin of Hermes the Snake-God, and of the Caduceus I'' American Journal of Archaeology Vol. 20, No. 2 (Apr. – Jun., 1916), pp. 175–211 http://www.jstor.org/stable/497115 Frothingham characterizes Farnell's simplistic view of the origin of the symbol as a "frivolous and futile theory". 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「caduceus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|