Greek city of Tabai in Caria
Bronze 18mm (5.58 grams) Struck circa 100-25 B.C.
Reference: Sear 4946 var.
Laureate head of Zeus right.
Capos of the Dioscuri right, caduceus between; TABHNΩN beneath.

Situated in the interior of the country, near the Phrygian border, Tabai derived its name from the Carian or Lydian word Taba, meaning rock.

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Pollux and Castor or Polydeuces were twin brothers in Greek and Roman mythology and collectively known as the Dioskouroi. They were the sons of Leda by Tyndareus and Zeus respectively, the brothers of Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra , and the half-brothers of Timandra , Phoebe , Heracles , and Philonoe . They are known collectively in Greek as the Dioscuri (Latin: DioscÅ«rÄ«; Greek : Î�ι�Œ�ƒÎºÎ¿�…��οι, Dioskouroi, "sons of Zeus") and in Latin as the Gemini ("twins") or Castores. They are sometimes also termed the Tyndaridae or Tyndarids , later seen as a reference to their father and stepfather Tyndareus .

In the myth the twins shared the same mother but had different fathers which meant that Pollux was immortal and Castor was mortal. When Castor died, Pollux asked Zeus to let him share his own immortality with his twin to keep them together and they were transformed into the Gemini constellation . The pair were regarded as the patrons of sailors, to whom they appeared as St. Elmo's fire .

Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus by Rubens, ca. 1618.

The caduceus from Greek "herald's staff" is the staff carried by Hermes in Greek mythology . The same staff was also borne by heralds in general, for example by Iris , the messenger of Hera. It is a short staff entwined by two serpents , sometimes surmounted by wings. In Roman iconography it was often depicted being carried in the left hand of Mercury , the messenger of the gods, guide of the dead and protector of merchants, shepherds, gamblers, liars, and thieves.

As a symbolic object it represents Hermes (or the Roman Mercury), and by extension trades, occupations or undertakings associated with the god. In later Antiquity the caduceus provided the basis for the astrological symbol representing the planet Mercury . Thus, through its use in astrology and alchemy , it has come to denote the elemental metal of the same name.

By extension of its association with Mercury/Hermes, the caduceus is also a recognized symbol of commerce and negotiation, two realms in which balanced exchange and reciprocity are recognized as ideals.^[4][5] This association is ancient, and consistent from the Classical period to modern times. The caduceus is also used as a symbol representing printing, again by extension of the attributes of Mercury (in this case associated with writing and eloquence).

The caduceus is sometimes mistakenly used as a symbol of medicine and/or medical practice , especially in North America , because of widespread confusion with the traditional medical symbol, the rod of Asclepius , which has only a single snake and no wings.

The term kerukeion denoted any herald's staff, not necessarily associated with Hermes in particular.^[7]

Lewis Richard Farnell (1909) in his study of the cult of Hermes assumed that the two snakes had simply developed out of ornaments of the shepherd's crook used by heralds as their staff.^[8] This view has been rejected by later authors pointing to parallel iconography in the Ancient Near East. It has been argued that the staff or wand entwined by two snakes was itself representing a god in the pre-anthropomorphic era. Like the herm or priapus , it would thus be a predecessor of the anthropomorphic Hermes of the classical era.

Ancient Near East

William Hayes Ward (1910) discovered that symbols similar to the classical caduceus sometimes appeared on Mesopotamian cylinder seals . He suggested the symbol originated some time between 3000 and 4000 BCE, and that it might have been the source of the Greek caduceus.^[10] A.L. Frothingham incorporated Dr. Ward's research into his own work, published in 1916, in which he suggested that the prototype of Hermes was an "Oriental deity of Babylonian extraction" represented in his earliest form as a snake god. From this perspective, the caduceus was originally representative of Hermes himself, in his early form as the Underworld god Ningishzida , "messenger" of the "Earth Mother".^[11] The caduceus is mentioned in passing by Walter Burkert ^[12] as "really the image of copulating snakes taken over from Ancient Near Eastern tradition".

In Egyptian iconography, the Djed pillar is depicted as containing a snake in a frieze of the Dendera Temple complex .

The rod of Moses and the brazen serpent are frequently compared to the caduceus, especially as Moses is acting as a messenger of God to the Pharaoh at the point in the narrative where he changes his staff into a serpent.^[13]

Classical antiquity

Mythology

The Homeric hymn  to Hermes relates how Hermes offered his lyre fashioned from a tortoise shell as compensation for the cattle he stole from his half brother Apollo . Apollo in return gave Hermes the caduceus as a gesture of friendship.^[14] The association with the serpent thus connects Hermes to Apollo , as later the serpent was associated with Asclepius , the "son of Apollo".^[15] The association of Apollo with the serpent is a continuation of the older Indo-European dragon -slayer motif. Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher  (1913) pointed out that the serpent as an attribute of both Hermes and Asclepius is a variant of the "pre-historic semi-chthonic serpent hero known at Delphi as Python ", who in classical mythology is slain by Apollo.^[16]

One Greek myth of origin of the caduceus is part of the story of Tiresias ,^[17] who found two snakes copulating and killed the female with his staff. Tiresias was immediately turned into a woman, and so remained until he was able to repeat the act with the male snake seven years later. This staff later came into the possession of the god Hermes, along with its transformative powers.

Another myth suggests that Hermes (or Mercury) saw two serpents entwined in mortal combat. Separating them with his wand he brought about peace between them, and as a result the wand with two serpents came to be seen as a sign of peace.^[18]

In Rome, Livy refers to the caduceator who negotiated peace arrangements under the diplomatic protection of the caduceus he carried.

Iconography

In some vase paintings ancient depictions of the Greek kerukeion are somewhat different from the commonly seen modern representation. These representations feature the two snakes atop the staff (or rod), crossed to create a circle with the heads of the snakes resembling horns. This old graphic form, with an additional crossbar to the staff, seems to have provided the basis for the graphical sign of Mercury (☿) used in Greek astrology  from Late Antiquity.^[19]

Use in alchemy and occultism

As the symbol of both the planet and the metal named for Mercury, the caduceus became an important symbol in alchemy .

The crucified serpent was also revived as an alchemical symbol for fixatio , and John Donne  (Sermons 10:190) uses "crucified Serpent" as a title of Jesus Christ .

Symbol of commerce

A simplified variant of the caduceus is to be found in dictionaries, indicating a “commercial term� entirely in keeping with the association of Hermes with commerce. In this form the staff is often depicted with two winglets attached and the snakes are omitted (or reduced to a small ring in the middle).^[20] The Customs Service of the former German Democratic Republic employed the caduceus, bringing its implied associations with thresholds, translators, and commerce, in the service medals they issued their staff.

Misuse as symbol of medicine

It is relatively common, especially in the United States, to find the caduceus, with its two snakes and wings, used as a symbol of medicine instead of the correct rod of Asclepius, with only a single snake. This usage is erroneous, popularised largely as a result of the adoption of the caduceus as its insignia by the US Army medical corps in 1902 at the insistence of a single officer (though there are conflicting claims as to whether this was Capt. Frederick P. Reynolds or Col. John R. van Hoff).^[21][22]

The rod of Asclepius is the dominant symbol for professional healthcare associations in the United States. One survey found that 62% of professional healthcare associations used the rod of Asclepius as their symbol.^[23] The same survey found that 76% of commercial healthcare organizations used the Caduceus symbol. The author of the study suggests the difference exists because professional associations are more likely to have a real understanding of the two symbols, whereas commercial organizations are more likely to be concerned with the visual impact a symbol will have in selling their products.

The initial errors leading to its adoption and the continuing confusion it generates are well known to medical historians. The long-standing and abundantly attested historical associations of the caduceus with commerce, theft, deception, and death are considered by many to be inappropriate in a symbol used by those engaged in the healing arts.^[22] This has occasioned significant criticism of the use of the caduceus in a medical context.

In the ancient Greek religion , Zeus zews zooss ; Ancient Greek : ; Modern Greek : , Dias) was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology . His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and Etruscan counterpart is Tinia .

Zeus was the child of Cronus and Rhea , and the youngest of his siblings. In most traditions he was married to Hera, although, at the oracle of Dodona , his consort was Dione : according to the Iliad , he is the father of Aphrodite by Dione. He is known for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena , Apollo and Artemis , Hermes , Persephone (by Demeter ), Dionysus , Perseus , Heracles , Helen of Troy , Minos , and the Muses (by Mnemosyne ); by Hera, he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus .

As Walter Burkert points out in his book, Greek Religion, "Even the gods who are not his natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence." For the Greeks, he was the King of the Gods , who oversaw the universe. As Pausanias observed, "That Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men". In Hesiod's Theogony Zeus assigns the various gods their roles. In the Homeric Hymns he is referred to as the chieftain of the gods.

His symbols are the thunderbolt , eagle , bull , and oak . In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the Ancient Near East , such as the scepter . Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses: standing, striding forward, with a thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand, or seated in majesty.

Zeus, poetically referred to by the vocative Zeu pater ("O, father Zeus"), is a continuation of *Di̯ēus, the Proto-Indo-European god of the daytime sky, also called *Dyeus ph₂tÄ“r ("Sky Father").^[9] The god is known under this name in Sanskrit (compare Dyaus/Dyaus Pita ), Latin (compare Jupiter , from Iuppiter, deriving from the Proto-Indo-European vocative *dyeu-ph₂tÄ“r^[10]), deriving from the basic form *dyeu- ("to shine", and in its many derivatives, "sky, heaven, god").^[9] And in Germanic mythology (compare *TÄ«waz > Old High German language Ziu, Old Norse Týr ), together with Latin deus, dÄ«vus and Dis (a variation of dÄ«ves^[11]), from the related noun *deiwos.^[11] To the Greeks and Romans, the god of the sky was also the supreme god. Zeus is the only deity in the Olympic pantheon whose name has such a transparent Indo-European etymology.

Tabae is a Catholic titular see . The original diocese was in Caria , a suffragan of Stauropolis ; according to Strabo ^[1] it was located in a plain in Phrygia on the boundaries of Caria. The place is now Tavas , near Kale, Denizli in Turkey ; some inscriptions and numerous ancient remains have been found.

Stephanus Byzantius mentions two cities of this name, one in Lydia , the other in Caria. Livy^[2] says that it was on the frontier of Pisidia towards the coast of the Gulf of Pamphylia . The town in question, however, some coins of which are extant, was one which claimed to have been founded by one Tabus. Others derive its name from tabi, which in Semitic languages means "good", and others from a native word taba, meaning "rock", which seems a probable derivation.

History

In 189 BC, the consul Gnaeus Manlius Vulso , having defeated the inhabitants who blocked his passage, exacted from Tabae a fine of 25 talents and 10,000 medimni of wheat.

Bishops

Three bishops of Tabae are known:

• Rufinus, present at the Council of Ephesus (431);
• Severus, at Constantinople (553);
• Basilius, at Nicæa (787).

The Notitiæ Episcopatuum continue to mention the see among the suffragans of Stauropolis until the 13th century.

As of 2008, the titular is Gerard Paul Bergie.