In a 2010 issue of ADF Health I wrote an article More on the Staff and Serpent of Asclepius (1) describing Asclepian medicine and the Asclepian Temples with a short description of the wooden staff and entwining serpent of Asclepius. At the time I had not found any information on the origin, symbolism or nature of the staff, other than a staff was usually carried by itinerant physicians and philosophers and that it represented a person of knowledge and wisdom. Recently I have come across some references in
relation to the staff.
I had always thought the staff was made of wood from an orange or olive tree as both grew prolifically on the island of cos, but in retrospect, their branches are too thin and straggly. Some references have simply referred to the staff as a “rough hewn branch”. (2) Annette Giesecke in her 2014 book The Mythology of Plants: Botanical Lore from Ancient Greece and Rome states that the staff of Asclepius was made of cypress wood. (3) The cypress tree was a symbol of death and mourning to the ancient Romans, being a hardwood it was used for sarcophagi, it was planted in cemeteries and adorned graves, and burned as incense in cremations. It was also sacred to Apollo, the Roman and Greek god of healing, as well as Diana, Aphrodite, and Apollo’s son, Asclepius, and the cypress did represent health, beauty and rejuvenation in other cultures. In ancient times, the Mediterranean or Italian cypress, Cupressus sempervirens (L. Cyparissus = a mythical youth, a lover of Apollo from the island of Ceos, who was transformed by Apollo into the cypress tree after the youth was grief stricken for accidently killing his pet sacred stag and so the youth might mourn eternally, sempervirens = “always vigourous or green” (4)), originally native to the mountains of the Middle East and Asia Minor, was prolific in Italy, Greece, and particularly the islands of Cos and Delos where Asclepian disciples, and later Hippocrates, practised the art of physik, or healing, the art of returning a sick person back to their natural state of health.
There are other unsubstantiated theories about the origins of the staff and serpent, (5) One theory relates to the Egyptian Ebers papyrus which describes using a stick to wind around and extract parasitic worms like the Guinea worm, and the symbol of the worm around a stick was used by Egyptian physicians to advertise their skills. Another is the biblical theory which relates to Moses who carried a bronze staff
around which entwined a serpent and was used for healing.
However, I think that the most logical explanation is that the wooden staff represented Asclepius as a knowledgable and wise person as was typical at the time, and that it was made from a branch of the cypress tree both because it was a hardy and prolific wood on cos, and because it was sacred to Apollo and Asclepius.
The origin of the serpent is much clearer. Since antiquity the serpent has represented magic, healing, rejuvenation and longevity, probably related to its ability to shed its skin and renew, and was symbolic of medicine not only in Roman and Greek times, but also Sumerian, Egyptian, Minoan and Mycenaean cultures, and in ancient Indian and Chinese cultures. The venom of the viper was used to treat erysipelas, measles, smallpox, lepsosy, and skin disorders. The serpent used by Asclepian disciples in their healing temples, the Asclepieia, was Zamenis longissima (Gr. zamenos = “great strength”, longissimus = “very long”), a non-venomous snake and member of the Colubridae family of constrictors native to Europe, its common name is the Aesculapean snake. The Asclepian healer would put the patient to sleep, sometimes using soporific substances such as opiates, in a small square room, a cubiculum, with the front open to the courtyard of the temple, and allow the serpent to lick the patient’s eyes to induce dreams in which the patient would be visited by the god Asclepius, and which were interpreted later by a priest when the patient awoke to formulate their diagnosis and treatment. Asclepian medical treatment centred around purification, religious rites and offerings, and holistic remedies, and included diet, abstinence from alcohol, purgatives and emetics, exercise, massage, mineral baths, herbal medicines, and prayers to the gods of Apollo, Asclepius, and Asclepius’ daughters, Panacea and Hygeia.
Regards,
John Frith RFD
Commander RANR (Rtd)
