with his serpent-entwined staff;
Archaeological Museum of Epidaurus The Rod of Asclepius takes its name from the Greek god
Asclepius, a deity associated with healing and medicinal arts in
ancient Greek religion and
mythology. Asclepius' attributes, the snake and the staff, sometimes depicted separately in antiquity, are combined in this symbol. The most famous temple of Asclepius was at
Epidaurus in north-eastern
Peloponnese. Another famous healing temple (or
asclepeion) was located on the island of
Kos, where
Hippocrates, the legendary "father of medicine", may have begun his career. Other asclepieia were situated in
Trikala,
Gortys (Arcadia), and
Pergamum in
Asia. In honour of Asclepius, a particular type of non-venomous
rat snake was often used in healing rituals, and these snakes – the
Aesculapian snakes – crawled around freely on the floor in dormitories where the sick and injured slept. These snakes were introduced at the founding of each new temple of Asclepius throughout the classical world. From about 300
BCE onwards, the cult of Asclepius grew very popular and pilgrims flocked to his healing temples (Asclepieia) to be cured of their ills. Ritual purification would be followed by offerings or
sacrifices to the god (according to means), and the supplicant would then spend the night in the holiest part of the sanctuary – the abaton (or adyton). Any dreams or visions would be reported to a priest who would prescribe the appropriate therapy by a process of interpretation. Some healing temples also used sacred dogs to lick the wounds of sick petitioners. The original
Hippocratic Oath began with the invocation "I swear by Apollo the Healer and by Asclepius and by
Hygieia and
Panacea and by all the gods ..." The significance of the serpent has been interpreted in many ways; sometimes the shedding of skin and renewal is emphasized as symbolizing rejuvenation, while other assessments center on the serpent as a symbol that unites and expresses the dual nature of the work of the Apothecary Physician, who deals with life and death, sickness and health. The ambiguity of the serpent as a symbol, and the contradictions it is thought to represent, reflect the ambiguity of the use of drugs, However the word may become less ambiguous when "medicine" is understood as something that heals the one taking it because it poisons that which afflicts it, meaning medicine is designed to kill or drive away something and any healing happens as a result of that thing being gone, not as a direct effect of medicine.
Products deriving from the bodies of snakes were known to have medicinal properties in ancient times, and in ancient Greece, at least some were aware that snake venom that might be fatal if it entered the bloodstream could often be imbibed. Snake venom appears to have been prescribed in some cases as a form of therapy. The staff has also been variously interpreted. One view is that it, like the serpent, "conveyed notions of resurrection and healing", while another (not necessarily incompatible) is that the staff was a walking stick associated with itinerant physicians.
Cornutus, a Greek philosopher probably active in the first century CE, in the
Theologiae Graecae Compendium (Ch. 33) offers a view of the significance of both snake and staff: In any case, the two symbols certainly merged in antiquity as representations of the snake coiled about the staff are common. ==Confusion with the caduceus==