Pearn John
Australia Society of the History of Medicine.
Vesalius. 2011 Jun;17(1):4-9.
Much conjecture abounds about the origin of the Asklepian serpent of healing, this latter the universal metonym for curative medicine. Iconographic evidence of Asklepios with his staff-entwined serpent exists from Hippocratic times. Many theories exist about the origin of this reptilian symbol of curative medicine. Speculation has ranged from the skin-shed serpent emergent in new and robust health to putative associations with earlier Egyptian and Babylonian anguine (snake) symbols of life-determining power. Other scholars have drawn attention to the Palaeolithic, Neolithic and later Bronze-Age associations with serpent veneration in the context of rain and fertility religious invocations in India; and in many other cultures. In the South Pacific, in Australia and in Central and South America, serpents were regarded as spirits of the earth, often chthonian spirits who possessed life-giving powers. In Chaldean and Arabic etymology, the words for "serpent" and "life" have a synergy. In Classical Greece, the Agathos Daimon was literally the "noble spirit", a personal companion spirit ensuing health and good fortune. The Agathos Daimon was portrayed in iconography as a serpent, or as a fit and comely youth. This paper conjectures that the serpentine Agathos Daimon was one origin of the Asklepian symbol of medicine, portrayed as the serpent associated of the Homeric Asklepios. In later Roman times, the Agathos Daimon was transliterated to the agathodaemon, a protective companion spirit both of individuals and of the homes in which they lived. This benign resident spirit featured prominently in Roman art and was a common feature as a protective household spirit in first century homes at both Pompeii and Herculaneum. The agathodaemon motif also featured on Roman coins, such as bronze diobols of Antoninus Plus (138 - 161 A.D.) from Alexandrian mints in Egypt. In the twenty-first century, the serpentine Agathos Daimon is honoured not only as the symbol of medicine; but is daily acknowledged in toasts to "Good Health".
关于医神阿斯克勒庇俄斯的治疗之蛇的起源，有很多猜测，后者是治疗医学的通用代名词。从希波克拉底时代起，就有阿斯克勒庇俄斯手持缠绕着蛇的权杖的图像证据。关于这种治疗医学的爬行动物象征的起源，有很多理论。猜测范围从新生且健康强壮时蜕下皮的蛇，到与早期埃及和巴比伦象征决定生命力量的蛇形符号的假定联系。其他学者则提请注意旧石器时代、新石器时代以及后来青铜时代在印度与降雨和丰产宗教仪式相关的对蛇的崇敬；以及在许多其他文化中。在南太平洋、澳大利亚以及中美洲和南美洲，蛇被视为大地之灵，通常是具有赋予生命力量的冥间之灵。在迦勒底语和阿拉伯语词源中，“蛇”和“生命”这两个词有协同关系。在古典希腊，善神实际上是“高贵的灵魂”，是带来健康和好运的个人守护灵。善神在图像中被描绘成一条蛇，或者是一个健康英俊的青年。本文推测，蛇形的善神是医学阿斯克勒庇俄斯符号的一个起源，被描绘成与荷马笔下的阿斯克勒庇俄斯相关联的蛇。在后来的罗马时代，善神被音译为agathodaemon，是个人及其居住房屋的保护性守护灵。这种仁慈的居住之灵在罗马艺术中显著出现，并且是公元一世纪庞贝和赫库兰尼姆家庭中常见的保护性家庭之灵特征。agathodaemon图案也出现在罗马硬币上，比如埃及亚历山大铸币厂铸造的安东尼努斯·普卢斯（公元138 - 161年）的青铜二奥波尔币。在21世纪，蛇形的善神不仅被尊为医学的象征；而且在为“身体健康”的祝酒词中每天都被提及。
