What is Asclepius' Scepter?

You would think that a doctor - a professor (literally one who professes) - an elite member of a so-called "advanced trade" - would be someone who was well educated.

Apparently not so with my doctor.

After you read this article, perhaps you would be inclined to put your doctor to a similar test to which I subjected mine...

MY (EX-) DOCTOR'S RUDE AWAKENING

Some years ago I consulted a physician on an annual checkup. This was the first time I had seen this guy, and thus I wanted to get to know the man behind the officious eyeglasses and a continuously frowning visage of feigned professionalism.

While sitting in the examination room as he looked over my paperwork, I interrupted an otherwise planned period of silence whereby the patient was supposed to remain still and compliant. Instead, I made my move.

"What's that?"

I pointed to that winged serpent-entwined staff that so frequently adorns the various literature plastering the walls of the patients' waiting room.

Surprised at my unexpected outburst, the doctor looked up at me, "What's what?"

"That." I gestured again at the symbol on the wall.

"Oh, that's the doctor's staff." And he looked down at my paperwork again.

After a moment, I asked, "Where does it come from? What's the origin?"

Taken aback at my question, he recovered and rallied up an effete answer, "It's an old doctor's symbol." He went back to looking at my papers.

"Yes, but what does it really mean? Why that symbol?"

He looked up again, this time clearly alarmed, "It's just an old symbol that stands for doctors."

"SO. This is to say, you really don't know the story behind that symbol."

His face turned red, and he was just starting to be pissed. "It's a physician's staff from the old days. What else is there to know?"

Wrong!

I had struck upon a topic that the all-knowing doctor should have known from the very first day he decided to start messing with other people's lives - at the very least to justify these ridiculous co-payments and horrifically expensive insurance premiums. Instead, this guy was showing himself to me for the quack he was.

At this time I proceeded to explain to him what I share with you below. Needless to say, he handled a neutrally imparted tutelage badly: he became all defensive, and we parted company without a thank you or an offer to shake my hand. After dumping him, I hopped through a few doctors before I found one with her head screwed on half-way right.

GOOD OL' SIS

Sometimes it helps to know an obscure thing or two about the trade for which you are supposedly consulting a professional.

In this case, my pre-knowledge of a topic that had cracked the resolve of my doctor was a tidbit imparted to me through a fathomless wealth of knowledge: my sister Martha had told me the story of Asclepius' Scepter long ago...

THE STORY OF ASCLEPIUS & MEDICINE

From the beginning it seems that Asclepius was born into the drama of medicine.

Originating in Roman mythology, the story has it that Asclepius was born as the son of Koronis and Apollo. As his mother died in labor bearing him, she was laid out on a funeral pyre to be consumed by fire. However, the unborn child within was rescued - literally cut out from her womb. From this he received the name Asklepios "to cut open." Apollo gave Asclepius to the centaur Kheiron who then raised and instructed him in the arts of medicine. The story of Asclepius continues onward and ends with his death at the hands of Zeus - in full honor of the drama we so frequently see in Greek and Roman mythology.

As history would have it later, Asclepius' followers often allowed snakes into their healing rituals, with non-venomous snakes left to crawl about the floor in infirmaries where the sick and injured took rest. It is not at all uncommon to find the imagery of snakes associated with healing powers. Snakes' ability to periodically shed their old skin and regenerate a new one has long been interpreted as a sign of self regeneration and miraculous healing. For this reason it's not at all surprising to find that snakes are associated with the healing arts and the name of Asclepius.

ASCLEPIUS IN LATER CENTURIES

In the centuries that followed the mythological era, the advent of science fell into more mainstream social and cultural venues, and likewise medicine has also grown.

However, this is not to say that the old storytelling ways abated as the knowledge of the human body grew.

The old Latin text accompanying the Medici icon (see accompanying picture), embellishes the ancient image of Asclepius and is translated loosely as follows:

"What God are you? The son of Apollo and Coronis. Why do you hold a sceptre?

Because I rule over the sick like a king.

Why are you seated? The doctor should be a man of sedate spirit. Why does the laurel shade your head? Because everlasting honour arises from my art.

Why do you lean on a knotted stick? That signifies the difficulty of the art.

Why does a Cockerel stand on one side, and a Serpent on the other? A wakeful carefulness and guardianship befits the doctor. Why does a dog want to be under your feet? This is a symbol of trustworthiness."

WHAT IS ASCLPIUS' SCEPTER?

And so we have an ancient story which has grown over time, and in this age of severe convenience and seemingly every day recruits in medical science, we have so-called "professionals" who claimed to "profess" to be practitioners of the medical arts - seemingly well-educated people - who know nothing about the ancient symbol printed on their stationery, wall charts, and indeed on the sides of the buildings wherein they keep their offices.

The scepter is likened to Zeus' thunderbolt - a symbol of pure power befitting an emperor. The snakes intertwined around this scepter provide a focus of such immense power in the form of healing.

And thus in a nutshell, you now have a semblance of knowledge about something which few people know to this day.

Have fun!

- John

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