Rod of Asclepius
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The Rod of Asclepius, also known as the Staff of Aesculapius, is a serpent-entwined rod wielded by the Greek god Asclepius, a deity in Greek mythology associated with healing and medicine. In modern t
Asclepius with his serpent-entwined staff; Archaeological Museum of Epidaurus
Charmeur de serpents à Jaipur
Hippocratic Oath
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The Hippocratic Oath is an oath of ethics historically taken by physicians. It is one of the most widely known of Greek medical texts. In its original form, it requires a new physician to swear, by a
Rod of Asclepius
…the appropriate therapy by a process of interpretation. Some healing temples also used sacred dogs to lick the wounds of sick petitioners. The original Hippocratic Oath began with the invocation "I swear by Apollo the Healer and by Asclepius and by Hygieia and Panacea and by all the gods ..." The serpent and the staff…
A fragment of the oath on the 3rd-century Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 2547.
The Greek physician Hippocrates (460–370 BC), to whom the oath is traditionally attributed, though most modern scholars challenge that attribution.
A 12th-century Greek manuscript of the oath in the shape of a cross. The oath continued to be in use in the Byzantine Christian world, with its references to pagan deities replaced by a Christian preamble.
Hippocratic Oath in a surgical treatise by Franciscus Arcaeus (1493–1573?), English edition of 1588