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In the Olympian pantheon of Greek gods, Apollo was the "bringer of and deliverer from plagues." He was said to have passed his skills onto his son Asclepius, whose mother was a human. According to one account, Asclepius was taught herbal remedies by Chiron, the centaur. Asclepius was associated with snakes, which were used in the healing ceremonies of his cult. Asclepius was also depicted with his two daughters, Hygeia (health or hygiene) and Panacea (cure-all).

Asclepius was depicted holding a staff around which a snake was entwined. This staff, or rod, later became a symbol of the medical profession. Sometimes it is called the caduceus. This name is properly applied to another staff, that of the Greek god Hermes (the Roman Mercury), the messenger of the gods who was credited with the birth of commerce. Hermes holds a winged staff entwined with two snakes. As a result of the confusion, Hermes’s staff, the caduceus, is often used a medical symbol as well, particularly in the United States.Like the Egyptian Imhotep and at about the same time, Asclepius became the focus of a widespread cult. Temples were erected to him in towns all over Greece. People visited in large numbers to stay overnight in special sleeping chambers. There, they hoped that a visitation of the god by dream would cure them directly or that their dreams would provide fodder for interpretation (and a cure) by the temple priest. Attending physicians offered more mundane treatments in the form of massages and herbal remedies. The cults of Asclepius and Imhotep (for the Greeks they were interchangeable) lasted for centuries, continuing into the Roman period.

We have looked at the role of shamanism in some ancient cultures. But how and where does shamanism fit into the modern world?

	Digging Deeper Find out more about Medical symbols and snakes.