Thursday, January 29, 2009

Irony for the Antiquarian

I must note, for a snicker or two, that it seems in the general parlance of symbolic shorthand that the Staff of Asclepius (the doctor-son of Apollo and patron of medicine) seems to have mostly been replaced by the Rod of Hermes (patron of, among other things, merchants and thieves).

2 comments:

Story Boyle said...

Ha! So where, then, does that leave insurance companies in this equation?

Dragan said...

It seems the confusion is mostly a popular one, but in the medical profession itself not so much. The AMA and other organizations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_of_Asclepius#Professional_usage) are not confused. The general confusion is, in fact, the military's fault as they used it for medic badges.