Staff of Hermes | Medical Pin Brooch | Gifts For Nurses

Description

The staff of Hermes and The caduceus is the traditional symbol of Hermes and features two snakes winding around an often-winged staff. It is often used as a symbol of medicine instead of the Rod of Asclepius, especially in the United States. The two-snake caduceus design has ancient and consistent associations with trade, eloquence, negotiation, alchemy, and wisdom. Perhaps the first appearance of a similar symbol, especially about healing, is found in the Jewish Torah after the Exodus in approximately 1300 BCE. The Torah states (Numbers 21:5-9): “The people spoke against God and Moses. Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in this desert, for there is no bread and no water, and we are disgusted with this rotten bread? And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and many of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and you; pray that He take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten when he looks upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.” However, the item created by Moses, as described above, was a pole entwined by a single brass serpent, making it more similar to the Rod of Asclepius, the symbol of the Greek god of medicine and healing, than the caduceus. The modern use of the caduceus as a symbol of medicine became established in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century due to documented mistakes, misunderstandings, and confusion. This vintage version of the Staff of Hermes is a fantastic gift for nurses, doctors, or anyone in the medical industry.