Medical Logos

Arguably the most known and adopted of symbols used in medical logos are the caduceus (two snakes on staff) and the staff of Asclepius (one snake on staff).

According to legend, the caduceus was adopted by the ancient Greek god Hermes as an individual mark or logo. Hermes found his analogue in Egypt as the ancient wisdom god Thoth, as Taaut of the Phoenicians and in Rome as the god Mercury. Hermes was seen as one of the messenger gods and protector of merchants and thieves. Hermes was not donned 'protector of health or medicines'.

The profile of Hermes holding the caduceus was often embedded in baked clay slabs.

image: medical-logos.png

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Additional information on medical logos
Compiled by Elza Uys

Many medical organizations use the caduceus as their medical logo. The words “caduity” and “caducous” means “temporarily”, “imperishableness” and “senility”. The medical profession espouses renewal, vitality and health.

The link between Hermes with his caduceus and medicine is "alchemy". In the sixteenth century, alchemists were referred to as the sons of Hermes, as Hermetists or Hermeticists and as "practitioners of the hermetic arts". By the end of the sixteenth century, the study of alchemy included not only medicine and pharmaceuticals but chemistry, mining and metallurgy. Despite learned opinion that it is the single snake staff of Asclepius that is the proper symbol of medicine, many medical groups have adopted the twin serpent caduceus of Hermes or Mercury as a medical logo during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The staff of Asclepius is applied as a medical logo by medical organizations such as World Health Organization, Canadian Medical Association and others. The staff of Asclepius is seen as the personification of medical or healing art and its ideals. Asclepius practised medicines in Greece around 1200BC and was heralded as such in the Iliad by Homer.

Through superstition and departure of time, Asclepius was worshipped as a god that could heal. This believe dwelt with men well into the sixth century.

The Asclepiadae were a large order of priest physicians who kept secret, healing methods and medicines. The art of healing was handed from father to son. Harmless Aesculapian snakes were kept in the combination hospital-temples, built by the ancient Greeks and later by the Romans, Germans and Austrians in honor of the myth god Asclepius. Many clay tablets found during excavations bore the "medical logo" of Asclepius. Many similar tablets were excavated in Italy, Germany and Switzerland, bearing images of the staff of Asclepius.

The third medical logo or mark indicating healing, (freedom from the slavery of illness and untimely death), is found in the Bible, in the books of Numbers 21:8-9 and 2 Kings 18: 4. The Bible teaches that the Israelites were in the desert, having left Egypt. They complained, speaking against God and against Moses, so God sent snakes among the Israelites. They repented and God commanded Moses to make a snake and place it upon a pole. When the people were bitten they could look at the serpent on a pole and they would live. That which God gave them for healing ultimately became an idol though. Later on multitudes of small replicas were made by the worshipers and sold. Hundreds of years later King Hezekiah made an abrupt end to this practice by destroying the physical image of the snake draped around a pole which Moses had made.

The single serpent on a staff also appears on a Sumerian vase of c. 2000 B.C, recalling the worship of the snake on a staff.

There is a corrolation between the symbol of the snake on a staff and the Christian symbol of the cross. In John 3: 14-15, Jesus states : “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus goes on to say (verse 16) “for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”. The image of the cross therefor could be intertreted as a symbol of God's gift of salvation, much as the image of the serpent on the staff is a symbol of God's gift of physical healing to the Hebrews when they were in the desert.

More Medical Logos @ Biz-Logo

Have a look at the Medical Logos category of our pre-designed logos.

We also have a number of medical logos in our logo design portfolio and examples of medical logos.

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