Leonor+'s+Proposal



Cool!

The Caduceus (What does this word mean, besides referring to the symbol?) is mysterious like the Mystery Religions. One way to approach this for your paper is to argue that it remains mysterious because there are three or four really good and equally good explanations and then explain each one in turn. This would be informative especially if you can make a convincing case for each explanation in turn. Your conclusion would then be left to the reader.

Can you break the symbol down into parts or elements? A thesis like yours, based on an object, should have several images and should use visual analysis as well as historical references.

Yesterday on PBS Newshour, I saw an interview in the streets of Athens (about the Greek economy) and there, on the street corner near a hospital, stood a sign: the caduceus. Apparently this symbol is an international sign for medical or emergency help.

The AMA uses a streamlined variation of the Caduceus. This might be another approach to your thesis: Trace the design changes over time. How does the AMA logo differ from the earliest version you can find? Does the earliest version have a context that tells a story about Asclepius or Hermes? Hermes is the messenger between the living and the dead, the border patrol where people cross over between being born and dying. The mystery religions re-emerged in the medieval period as a collection called the "Hermetica" - the Hermes-related writings (Hermes as monitor of the twilight zone).

The festivals of Dionysos featured wild women waving the "thyrsos" which is a long wand of fennel (weed) wrapped with ivy and leaves. This might be connected to the caduceus. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thyrsos I like the way your document opens here in Google docs. You'll have to tell us how you managed to implant the doc here....