Caduceus- Greek ArtifactArtifact

Origins

In the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, Apollo gave the staff to Hermes as part of their reconciliation after the infant god stole his cattle and charmed him with the newly invented lyre. Apollo described the gift as a golden staff of wealth and good fortune, the rod of a herdsman and herald. In another tradition, Hermes came upon two serpents locked in combat and thrust his staff between them; the serpents ceased their struggle and wound themselves peacefully around the rod, where they remained. Before the serpents, it had been a simple olive branch. In the hands of a herald it conferred inviolable status — to harm its bearer was to offend the gods themselves.

The Staff in Action

The Caduceus could put mortals to sleep or rouse them at Hermes's will. When old Priam needed to cross the Greek camp at night to ransom Hector's body from Achilles, Zeus sent Hermes to guide him. The god took the shape of a young attendant, drove Priam's chariot past the watchfires, and touched the sentries with his staff — they fell into deep sleep, and Priam passed unchallenged to Achilles' tent. When Zeus later dispatched Hermes to Calypso's island to command the nymph to release Odysseus, Hermes flew across the sea with the golden staff in hand.

Guide of Souls

Hermes also carried the Caduceus when he led the dead to the underworld. After Odysseus slaughtered the suitors who had overrun his household, Hermes appeared with his staff and summoned their souls. Homer describes them following the golden rod gibbering like bats in the depths of a cave — when one falls from the chain on the rock, the rest flutter and squeak after it. Past the streams of Oceanus they went, past the White Rock and the gates of the Sun, down to the asphodel meadows where the dead dwell.