Editing Caduceus (section)

===Iconography===
In some vase paintings ancient depictions of the Greek ''kerukeion'' are somewhat different from the commonly seen modern representation. These representations feature the two snakes atop the staff (or rod), crossed to create a circle with the heads of the snakes resembling horns. This old graphic form, with an additional crossbar to the staff, seems to have provided the basis for the graphical [[sign of Mercury]] (☿) used in  [[Greek astrology]] from Late Antiquity.<ref>"Signs and Symbols Used In Writing and Printing", p 269, in ''Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language'', unabridged, New York, 1953. Here the symbol of the planet Mercury is indicated as "the caduceus of Mercury, or his head and winged cap".</ref>